Tag: Intercontinental Championship

Hi, Kent here. We are ramping up for the Royal Rumble, but prior to that, we have RAW’s 25th anniversary. This week, WWE crowned a new US Champion, with Bobby Roode winning it. We talk about that plus much more. Over on our podcast, Are You Not Kentertained we discussed the MMC and the other big topics of the week. Please enjoy.

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Over the weekend, there were two breaking news stories. One that Paige’s in ring career was more or less over and the other that said Mark Henry had officially retired from the WWE. Discuss one or both of these stories.

Anonyruss: Well, that sucks for Paige and the WWE as a whole. Paige was a great in-ring talent and she is still young. Unfortunately, these things happen in professional wrestling. I guess the worst thing about it is that she just came back from a long hiatus from injury and now she may never wrestle again, at least in a WWE ring. It is also unfortunate that Paige, to me anyway, seems like a reckless person who is willing to throw away her well being just to get back in the ring. It’s her life, but I think WWE is doing the right thing here. As for Mark Henry retiring. I think he is as retired a wrestler as Ric Flair was the first time he retired. Mark is definitely on the last leg of his career, but I bet he still has a few matches in him. I’ll believe he is retired when I see it.

Harper Lee: My heart breaks for Paige. This talented young lady had worked so hard to get back on the right path from a professional and personal direction. It’s an absolute shame, but is another caution sign on the road of professional wrestling. This is why I appreciate that WWE has toned it’s product down. I have seen some of the stuff on the WWE network and I see how and why so many great careers were cut short like Austin, Edge, and the many performers during the hardcore Attitude era. Paige realistically had an opportunity to be one of the top 3 female performers in WWE history. Now she is more of a what if, while acknowledging how much potential she had. I also believe that this is why Paige’s picture for the Royal Rumble looked so bad. Think about it! In regards to Mark Henry, that man was really funny as Sexual Chocolate. He seemed to really grow as a performer as I have watched all the Royal Rumbles. He has had a lengthy career and I wish that he could have had a bigger curtain call. He deserves it. Maybe he makes one last appearance this year and if he does, me and my daddy will be cheering him on. I love dark chocolate, like the Hershey miniatures.

Keri’s Verdict: No! Not my girl Paige. This is so sad. She is so good and this is so unfortunate. Oh great! Now I’m sad. But wait, what is this I see? Why yes it is a comment about chocolate? Well that made me feel better about things. Harper gets a point for cheering me up.

Braun, you’re fired. No wait, Braun, you are rehired so please don’t destroy anything or anyone else for the rest of the night. Discuss this storyline.

Anonyruss: Let’s start by stating that the whole premise behind firing Braun was very stupid. Hey, last week you endangered the lives of people on live TV. I’m going to wait an entire week until we are on live TV again and I’m going to fire you! If WWE’s goal was to make Kurt look stupid… Mission accomplished. With that said. Can Braun get fired every week? This was fantastic! I don’t know how they keep coming up with ways for Braun to do awesome Braun things, but keep doing it! He is consistently the best thing on RAW every week and I look forward to seeing him get his hands on anyone who gets in his way. Give that man the belt!

Harper Lee: Pardon my language, but what the heck was that all about? I understand Kurt’s position on firing Braun, but Kurt handled it all wrong. I think it was Corey that said that Kurt should have told him outside of the arena or via phone. You don’t do it in front of the crowd because of course Braun is going to be upset. I have been fired from a few jobs, but I cannot imagine how embarrassing it would be to be fired in front of a crowd. I admit, Braun knows how to entertain me and I would love to run my fingers through that beard of his. So bushy! I wonder if this is going to cause friction between Stephanie and Kurt, yet again. I hope not.

Keri’s Verdict: My initial reaction to Braun’s firing was are they seriously doing this now? What is the point of this? I still feel that way but the hilarity that ensued after Braun was fired was well hilarious as hell. As I said last week, I love when Braun does Braun things and he should always do Braun things. Anonyruss shares my thoughts on this and for that he gets a point.

So, it looks like Miz is probably getting the IC title back from Reigns at some point. Discuss this possibility.

Anonyruss: I love The Miz, but I think it is high time he gets away from the IC title. Honestly, he has held onto that title for well over the past year and the only time he wasn’t really holding the belt was when he went off to film his movies. This is fine for the most part. He is great and greatness deserves to be recognized, but with Mania coming up, which means Brocks title reign should be coming to an end, I think it is time for The Miz to get into the mix for that title. With that said it does seem inevitable that on RAW 25 he will regain the title. That is fine, but can we have him in a good feud that won’t be wasted at Mania? I mean there are a lot of talented young up and comers who could use The Miz rub, like my boy Jason Jordan!

Harper Lee: I saw that Roman was linked to a steroids ring, so that can’t be good, right? Not only that, but Miz seems more important to the show than Roman. I love Roman and I think he is a dream boat, but when The Miz was gone to make the Marine 237, I found myself missing him talking smack to others and getting his butt whooped. I feel that there is more value in that from an entertainment standpoint than there is in being a gorgeous Samoan Bad A$$. My brother Eric loves those Marine films. I think he’s a bit of a simpleton.

Keri’s Verdict: The Miz has done more for the IC title than anyone else that has held over the past year. That includes that Wet Haired Guy who thinks he is the best in ring performer in the world. Seriously, Roman, top 5, maybe, but AJ Styles is currently saying hi over on Smackdown from that number one spot. Anyways, Roman has a date with Brock and maybe Braun at Mania. Let’s have him drop that title to someone who can continue to elevate the title and use it to elevate others. Now for points. I’m giving one point to Anonyruss even though I don’t completely agree with his fantasy booking.

And your new US Champion is……. Bobby Roode. Discuss. Also, what does this mean for Jinder?

Anonyruss: This was quite unexpected. I wonder what made WWE decide to do a rush job on this tournament? The fact that nobody seemed to care? Were they scared that Bobby vs Jinder would go over like a lead balloon? A little bit of both? Listen, if I were WWE those are actually legitimate concerns. Bobby is great in the ring, but can he carry the likes of Jinder? Well after watching their match on Smackdown I have to say yes! However, I’m going to have to give credit to Jinder here as well. This was a good match! Both guys put a lot of effort in and the story they told in the ring was interesting enough to hold my attention. From the beginning I’ve been saying that Bobby was winning this because it just made sense and I was right. Now I expect Dolph to reappear sometime in the near future to attack Bobby and give us a great feud over the belt! As for Jinder, I think if he keep working on his in-ring ability I think we will see him in the title picture for awhile.

Harper Lee: Oh my my my, what a glorious victory it was. I don’t normally say this, but I felt that both Bobby and Jinder had good showings. This is where Jinder should have been all along. I saw more out of Jinder tonight than I did during his whole world title reign, so maybe he can still prove the haters wrong, but then again, haters gonna hate. I love that Taylor Swift! Anyway, I think Bobby will be a great champion and it’s about time that he got featured. He is really quite the wrestler. He reminds me of younger HHH before he got all bulked up. Like his movement in the ring. I loved when HHH had that long hair. So pretty.

Keri’s Verdict: A couple of things before I award points. First, predictable booking is predictable. Who didn’t see Roode winning this thing? Second, Jinder proved one thing to me this week and that is he can have a good match provided he doesn’t have the pressure of championship gold weighing on him. Good for him. Now for points, Anonyruss gets the point again because as I said before predictable booking is predictable. I said a while ago this was setting up a future Dolph-Roode feud over the title and I will be shocked if WWE proves me wrong.

There were a few WWE signings announced this week and a few TNA departures that could possibly show up in the WWE in the very near future. Pick one of these signings (or departures) and discuss.

Anonyruss: I am most looking forward to having Bobby Lashley back in the WWE again. He was a great in-ring talent when he was first in the WWE and seemed very charismatic. For some reason WWE couldn’t make him the star he should have been. Then he went to TNA and really worked on the rest of his skills. Now the WWE is getting him back and I can’t be more excited. There are so many potential great matches that he can be in that we could be seeing 2018 shape up to be a great year for WWE wrestling. Bobby vs Brock / Bobby vs Roman / Bobby vs Braun / Hell Bobby vs AJ if he goes the Smackdown way. I can’t wait.

Harper Lee: I reached out to my blogging mentor, Kent, to ask about the TNA departures. I know that he is familiar with them. I know that EC3, James Storm, and Bobby Lashley have all been released, along with some others, like Chris Masters. All 3 guys of the main guys could be amazing under the right circumstance. Apparently EC3 used to work for WWE so I looked him up and he was not very good. Very silly. Him and Fandango had a feud and it wasn’t that good. Kent has assured me that he totally changed his gimmick and became a stellar in ring guy with great charisma and mic skills. I expect to see him in NXT. Bobby Roode will eventually need a big time opponent, or maybe need back up and Beer Money was one of the most successful tag teams in TNA’s history, and I guess that James left NXT under good terms, so that would be nice. Still, Bobby Lashley is the answer. He has an MMA background, still relatively decent age, in amazing shape, and apparently is a very complete wrestler and good on the mic. This is a dream match up for Brock in my opinion. I could see that at Wrestlemania or Summerslam and I would be excited. Plus Bobby fought for our president and shaved Mr. Macmahon’s hair that one year at Wrestlemania. My daddy sat there laughing and laughing and rewinding the VCR to see Vince get shaved and he made us all watch. It was so funny.

Keri’s Verdict: So, let me quickly talk about this week’s signings. Ricochet, or Prince Puma to those of you who watch Lucha Underground, is a terrific performer and a great add for the WWE. War Machine are former ROH and IWGP (NJPW) Tag Team Champs. These guys are awesome and quite agile in the ring despite their size. Now for Candice LeRae. I think you are all going to be impressed with her. She’s fantastic in the ring and was really impressive in the Mae Young Classic. Now for my comments on the TNA departures. I agree that both have significantly improved and deserve their shot at redemption. And now time for points. I’m awarding a point to Harper on this question. She really gave a thorough answer to this question and mentioned people I forgot about until she mentioned them. Good job Harper.

Bonus Time: Each week Anonyruss and Harper Lee will choose a topic that hasn’t been discussed in this week’s blog. In the event of a tie after 5 questions, Keri will use these extra thoughts to help her declare a winner.

Anonyruss: Finn vs Rollins was a great match. Do you know who we can thank for this great match-up? I know you are going to say well WWE creative and you would be wrong. It is the man with a plan Jason Jordan! If he didn’t go to his daddy and ask for the match we all would have missed it. Jason thank you! What was really unexpected was the use of The Curb Stomp or what I think they are now calling “Blackout”. I like that name. I don’t know what made WWE unban the stomp, but if they think they can pull it off safely enough then I’m all for it!

Harper Lee: I saw that Jey Uso was arrested for DWI. That is so bad. You are a representative for the company and are a role model for children, whether you want to be or not. I hope this wasn’t as serious as it sounds, but I would hope that wrestlers realize that there are plenty of children that look up to them. Try to be responsible. Oh, Daddy is hitting the shine again. I better go check on him before he tries shooting our dog again thinking it’s a coon.

Keri’s Final Verdict: Congrats to Anonyruss on this week’s win.

Final Thoughts:

Anonyruss: This years Rumble is shaping up to be one of the best Rumbles in years. With so many departures from TNA and signings by the WWE we could get a lot of surprise entries that could be a lot of fun. Not to mention we are getting a women’s Rumble as well. I’m always up for the Rumble, but this year feels more exciting than ever.

Harper Lee: I am so excited for the RAW 25th anniversary show. I was talking to my daddy, and he was telling me about the first RAW, and how it was such a difference compared to the previous show. I think it was Prime Time Wrestling. I don’t know. He was telling me about The Undertaker fighting some guy named Damien Demento. I wonder what he is doing right now. I am looking for to seeing the Undertaker. He has always been my favorite. We’ll have our VCR set for Monday.

Keri: I have to admit WWE has me intrigued about both RAW 25 and the Rumble. I never thought I would say that. But with that said, still not excited for Mania. Why you ask? Predictable booking is predictable.

Hi, Kent here. Things returned to normal a bit around here. We did our normal blog and on the podcast, Are You Not Kentertained we did a best of 2017 year in review type thing, like the Slammys, only legit. Please enjoy.

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So, Jordan thinks he is an honorary member of the Shield and the Club beat 2/3rds of the Shield. Discuss the opening segment and main event from this week’s RAW.

Anonyruss: I am really enjoying what WWE is doing with Jordan and The Shiel (No Dean, No D.) They are interweaving storylines very efficiently and keep foreshadowing a deeper problem between how Jordan see’s things vs how everyone else sees it. I don’t want to jinx it, but when did WWE creative become proficient in storytelling? What I really like about the way this is going down is that they have several different directions they can go with this story. They can have Jordan turn on Rollins. They can have Jordan breaking up The Shield (highly unlikely, but you never know.) They can have them finally become a cohesive unit. The best part is that I can’t honestly tell you which way they are going to go, which is fantastic, due to the fact that they are keeping Jordan in a gray area. Instead of shoving the fact that he is a heel or a face down our throats they are letting things simmer for now. That works! Keep it up WWE Creative! (I never thought I’d say that.)

Harper Lee: I don’t really like this Jason Jordan fella and now he is starting to get shoved down my throat and it’s making me like him less and less. I feel bored and discouraged when he is on my screen because we all know that he’s only getting this opportunity because of who his daddy is. Now granted, in Callhoun County, where I live, the mayor has been a member of the Windham family for 7 generations now, and it does okay by us, but it would be nice to change it up someday. My daddy called me a foolish girl when I told him that I wanted to run for mayor. Of course, he was right. I can’t take down the Windham dynasty and I don’t know who is going to take down the Angle dynasty. WIth that being said, I am all for that sexy Finn Balor and his good brothers. I wish I had good brothers.

Keri’s Verdict: I can’t believe I’m saying this but I actually like what they are doing with Jordan right now. It’s intriguing. As for the Balor Club, I’m just hoping for Balor Club vs the Shield once Dean returns and Jordan is a memory. Now time for points and this was a tough one because I like both responses. But, Anonyruss is in agreement with me and therefore he gets the point.

In a backstage segment, Kurt Angle was on the phone with someone for the Women’s Royal Rumble. Who do you think he was on the phone with?

Anonyruss: Well the hope and the dream is that he was on the phone with AJ Lee. Of course that is sky high dreaming, because I highly doubt she will ever appear in the WWE again. So my next vote goes to Trish Stratus. You know the originator of the WWE Diva (I don’t really know if that is true, but fuck it, she was so damn good looking!)

Harper Lee: I really hope that it’s Trish Stratus. When I was rewatching those old Royal Rumbles with my Daddy, I fell in love with this girl. Heck, I kinda thought she was kinda cute. Unfortunately, I said that out loud and my Daddy was not happy. He told me not to go fantasizing about no woman. He told me fantasize to fantasize about a man’s man, like William Regal, so that’s what I do at night, with my brass knucks. As punishment, my Daddy told me to get on all fours and bark like a dog since I liked Trish so much. Now I don’t know what that has to do with Trish, but I do like dogs, so I obliged. It was fun!

Keri’s Verdict: I would love for this to be someone out of the box like Gail Kim or AJ Lee but I highly doubt that is going to happen. So, we are probably getting Lita or Trish. Ok, points time. I’m awarding a point to Harper because that punishment was just plain old mean and I feel bad for the girl.

Some of the Mixed Match Challenge teams have been announced. Discuss the pairings made so far and name your favorite.

Anonyruss: WWE has done a great job putting these teams together. Ok, so it was “voted” upon by fans, but we all know that can be completely rigged. It is tough to say who I like the most. You have The Miz and Asuka (my odds on favorite team to win the whole thing.) Rusev and Lana, Sami and Becky, as well as Finn and Sasha. The list goes on. However, I was asked to give you my favorite team and I will deliver. My favorite pairing has to be Little Miss Bliss and The Monster Among Men. Those two together seem like an amazing pair. I may just watch this stupid stunt just to see Braun easily lift Bliss up onto his shoulders as they win match after match.

Harper Lee: Give me a moment to look at the list. Ohhh, The Miz and Asuka should be good, Finn and Sasha should be fun. I love the pairing of Goldust and Alicia, she cracks me up. Oh, well wait a minute. Braun and Alexa are a pairing? While nobody may be able to beat Asuka, there’s no way The Miz is beating Mr Strowman and his magnificent beard. That’s my pick. I think over on Smackdown, there teams just aren’t as good. I’m pulling for Sami and Becky because of Becky, I think the match up that I would love to see in the finals against Braun and Alexa would be with Shinsuke and Natalya. How fun would that be? I can’t wait to watch this!

Keri’s Verdict: Ok, here are my quick thoughts on the pairings and then I’ll award points. I love the pairing of Alexa and Braun. I’m upset that Bayley isn’t with Balor and Charlotte isn’t with AJ but oh well you can’t always get what you want. Now to award points. I love Harper’s enthusiasm about this whole thing so I award her a point.

The field for the US title semifinals is set with the addition of Mojo Rawley. Who do you have winning the tournament?

Anonyruss: Time to put on my cape and do my best Mr. Clio impression (listen to the damn podcast people if you don’t know who I’m talking about!) I have a feeling that we will end up seeing Bobby and Jinder making it to the finals. The end result will be Bobby winning the title. He is the only person that truly makes sense in winning this. He has already had a feud with Dolph, who should be returning around the rumble. This will allow these two to continue their feud, but it will be over the title now. End impression.

Harper Lee: Let’s be analytical with this. I don’t think Xavier has a chance, so I am giving him 0% chance to win. Looking at the brackets, I don’t think a Mojo vs Jinder match is what people want ever again, so I would put him out too with a 3% chance. The question is how good is this self proclaimed “glorious one”, Mr. Roode? Jinder is a former World champ while Bobby hasn’t done much in WWE. I do think the belt will look better around Mr Roode’s waist. On top of that, at least there’s such a thing as Canadian bacon. Ain’t nobody ever heard of Indian bacon. Bobby is my pick. I am gonna fry up some bacon now.

Keri’s Verdict: Ok, two things and then I will award points. First, Roode is winning. Second, I read Anonyruss’ post in Mr Clios’ voice and that scared me so Harper gets the point.

Give me your thoughts on the current state of the SamiKO, Shane, AJ, and Bryan storyline. How do you see this ending? Will we have the first co-WWE champions?

Anonyruss: Well this week the wheels kept on spinning in the main story on Smackdown. Unfortunately, the vehicle isn’t going anywhere. Every week it seems like the same rinse and repeat. One week Shane comes out does something questionable. The next week Daniel comes out does something questionable. I have a feeling this will continue until The Rumble. So how will this end? I’m going out on a limb because I doubt this will happen, but I’m dreaming here. I think SamiKO wins the belt. We will have Co-Champions and either one can defend the title. At first this will seem like an unstoppable force. As long as they don’t get pinned or submitted they keep the belt. This will go on until March. That’s when we start to see cracks in the armor. SamiKO doesn’t want to share the belt anymore they want it for themselves. So we start to see a little discord in the team. Enter the Royal Rumble winner where they finally break SamiKO and we get a full-fledged Triple Threat match at Mania the winner gets the belt.

Harper Lee: Daniel Bryan has nice hair. That is a man that I can trust. I can’t trust a MacMahon. Have you seen the stuff that this family has done in the past? Why does Shane even get cheers? I don’t get it. I think Daniel is doing what is right and throwing in a dash of spite for some extra flavor. I fear for my man AJ Styles. As a southern gentleman, he is a guy that I always have to cheer on. I fear that he is going to lose his belt though. Doesn’t this feel like the KO and Jericho storyline last year? I watched Wrestlemania last year and remember the video package for their feud and if KO and Sami win, won’t this just be the same? I love WWE, but this seems a tad repetitive….I think. I don’t know. I just want to eat my bacon in peace. All of this thinking is hurting my head.

Keri’s Verdict: The only way this story is not a complete waste of time is if KO and Sami win the belt. If they don’t, then my time was wasted. Oh who am I trying to kid I haven’t watch a full episode of Smackdown in months. With that said, it also ends my hope of AJ vs Nakamura at Mania so boo on everyone and everything. I do like Anonyruss’ fantasy booking so I will award him a point.

Bonus Time: Each week Anonyruss and Harper Lee will choose a topic that hasn’t been discussed in this week’s blog. In the event of a tie after 5 questions, Keri will use these extra thoughts to help her declare a winner.:

Anonyruss: Anyone else see Braun completely miss the Scaffolding with the grappling hook? No? Well he did, which was hilarious, but that doesn’t matter because it was also AWESOME! That is the kind of stuff Braun does that catapulted him to the top. I love how everyone around him was screaming stop instead of, you know doing anything to try and stop him. Don’t get me wrong if I saw Braun doing that I’d probably just walk the other direction, but come on people you are better than me. That brawl in the back area was brutal looking. All of those cases being thrown around and one landing right on top of Lesnar. Sure the scaffolding completely missed both guys, but who cares! It was AWESOME! Oh, by the way I love how there was so much concern for Brock, but Kane had literally no one even check up on him as he limped to wherever the hell the Devil’s favorite demon goes to heal.

Harper Lee: Where is my favorite RAW tag team, the Revival? My southern boys haven’t gone hard lately, and I love it when they go hard. Oh boy, that sounded bad. Fortunately Daddy don’t read this. I think The Revival are going to help Brock Lesnar retain his belt at the Royal Rumble. That’s my hope. MMM, time to go hard on this bacon. Yum!!!!! I like to have bacon with sour cream and onion Pringles and Seriously Sharp Cabot cheese. Soooo good. I gotta hurry up and finish this. Revival Rules, no matter what Keri thinks!

Keri’s Final Verdict: Two things. First, FTR and second, I love when Braun does Braun things. Now for our winner……..Congrats Harper on this week’s win. (Kent: Did you want me to fix your typo? She was trying to write FTE which stands for F*ck The Elite. I eagerly await Keri yelling at me in the near future. Seriously, I can picture her face right now. It’s GLORIOUS!)

Final Thoughts:

Anonyruss: I remember when Jordan was first announced to be Angles illegitimate child. I was horrified! How could they give this less talented American Alpha the rub he doesn’t really deserve? Since then he has consistently proven himself in the ring and is getting better on the mic all the time. I have to say that I am a fan of his now and I can’t wait to see what 2018 has in store for him.

Harper Lee: I was feeling under the weather this week and I struggled to pay attention to Smackdown. I gotta say haha to Enzo because he’s a jerk and he got his butt whipped.

Keri: I think I have finally gotten back to a normal sleep patterns after getting up at 2 am to watch Wrestle Kingdom 12 last week. Looking back it was still totally worth it. Be sure to tune into Keri’s Korner on this week’s podcast to get my full Wrestle Kingdom 12 and New Year Dash review.

Hi, Kent here. Things returned to normal a bit around here. We did our normal blog and on the podcast, Are You Not Kentertained we did a best of 2017 year in review type thing, like the Slammys, only legit. Please enjoy.

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This Samoa Joe and Roman Reigns feud is becoming a lot of fun. Discuss this week’s promos and the match.

Anonyruss: Samoa Joe is probably one of the best all around wrestlers you are going to find in the WWE. He is amazing in the ring and his promo’s are fantastic. The digs he took at Dean and Renee are the stuff you start feuds with. I can’t be the only person who wouldn’t be interested in a Dean Vs Joe feud when Dean finally comes back. Roman is well Roman. He is consistent with his wet hair and his matches. This weeks match was fantastic! Joe really knows how to tell a story in the ring. He kept on attacking Roman’s arm because that was the one he attacked last week. Roman also did a great job of storytelling. Not falling for the same tricks that Joe tried to pull last week and also having to keep himself in check several times. Ring psychology is becoming a lost art, but these two showed us that it isn’t dead yet. Great match to start 2018 with.

Harper Lee: I was so scared that Roman was going to lose his belt this week. That Samoa Joe is really tough. I thought that DQ stipulation was going to come in play, but that Samoan bad ass beat the other Samoan. Where is Samoa? I want to go there. I bet they have really good food. I have noticed that most of the Samoan wrestlers tend to be on the bigger side. I wonder if they have grits there. I want some grits right now. Yeah, this was by far the best match of 2018. Good for these 2. I want more…..and some grits.

Keri’s Verdict: It’s nice that Joe is finally getting a push and its nice that they are giving him the opportunity against Roman. Joe is the logical choice to take the IC title off of Roman. I predict it happens at some point before Mania given Romans inevitable showdown with Lesnar. Ok, now for the points. Anonyruss starts out the new year reading my mind yet again and now I’m just scared by that. But with that said, he does get the point because honestly this is how I would answer the question if it was up to me to answer it.

Finn finally reunited with Gallows and Anderson this week on RAW. Was this a smart move? Discuss.

Anonyruss: Hey it only took about a year and a half, but WWE finally put The Good Bros. together with The Balor Club leader himself. I’d say that this is 18 months too late, but let’s face it, WWE has completely wasted Gallows and Anderson for the past 12 months. The talented Good Bros. have done nothing of note for the past year and have been relegated to goofy segments for so long that I just thought WWE was going to waste them. Let’s not forget poor Finn. While not as egregious as what WWE did to G & A, WWE has dropped the ball with the First Universal Champion. He has been wrestling consistently, but as far as stories and progression of his character he has been spinning his wheels for months now. So is this a smart move? YES! YES! YES! Get these guys in the ring and show us what they can do!

Harper Lee: I didn’t even know that these guys had much of a past. Come to find out, in Japan they were known as the Bullet Club. Also, while doing this research, apparently they are still doing this Bullet Club. Some doofy looking idiot named Kenny Omega is now involved with these 2 skinny nerds called the Young Bucks. Wow, this group has truly gone downhill from it’’s glory days with the Good Brothers and FInn. I am happy for these guys. They all seem very happy and I do laugh when Gallows says Nerds. I am entertained, so yes, it’s a smart move.

Keri’s Verdict: What is that saying? Better late than never. Yeah, that’s the one I’m looking for when I sum up by opinion of this reunion. I’m a big fan of all things Bullet Club so this was very exciting for me to see happen. Now, if they could just get AJ involved somehow that would be even better. But with that said, it is time for me to award points. But before I do that I must give a “stern” warning to one of the individuals on this blog. Harper, I realize you are new to this wrestling game and you are entitled your own opinion. However, insulting my favorite wrestler (or my favorite tag team) isn’t going to get you any points from me on this blog. Therefore, one point Anonyruss. (Kent: In all fairness, how was she supposed to know that they were your favorite idiots…..I mean wrestlers?)

So, Alexa lost to Asuka on RAW and Becky is back on Smackdown. Discuss both developments and whether or not this changes anything for the Women’s Royal Rumble.

Anonyruss: First, I just want to say that I hate Miami! Yea, that’s right I hate a city! Why you ask? Well they are a terrible wrestling town. They do not know how to support the wrestlers or when to cheer or chant! If a town chants boring during a Cesaro match, I don’t trust anything that comes from that town. Also, more to my point. Asika and Alexa had a decent match on RAW. A good story was told in the ring. It wasn’t a classic by any means, but when your dumb town can’t even be bothered to cheer during what is clearly a fun match you can go to hell. Seriously it was like crickets when the two fought. Becky is back! I’ve said it before I have a feeling this will be Becky’s year. She is way too talented to go another year and nothing to show for it. When someone like Charlotte keeps getting belts because of daddy. Will this change anything for the Royal Rumble? The only way this is changing anything for the Rumble is if Asuka somehow isn’t involved in it. As long as Asuka is in the Rumble she is winning it.

Harper Lee: I saw the updated betting odds for this Women’s Royal Rumble. Ronda Rousey is the #2 favored person behind Asuka. Ronda Rousey is going to be on a different continent the day of the Rumble according to the internet. Nothing changes, Asuka is winning this without a shadow of a doubt in my mind. I’m really happy to see Becky come back, but she looks like she has lost a lot of weight. I thought she looked great as she was prior to leaving. Straight Fire!!! I feel bad for Alexa because her BFF was more concerned about Enzo than her friend’s well being. Not cool Nia!!!

Keri’s Verdict: Let me start off by saying I love Miami. It’s a beautiful city and one of my favorite vacation spots. Does it have the best wrestling fans? No, but that is not a reason to bash the city as a whole. Well, at least in my opinion it isn’t but that is neither here nor there. And as I said before, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But since I’m the one who awards the points that does factor into my decision. So, with that said, one point for Harper.

We have new Smackdown Tag Team champions. Oh, wait, nevermind, we don’t. Give me your thoughts on this match and its outcome.

Anonyruss: I really liked how this played out. It was different. Sure, it made the ref look like a damned idiot, but at least it wasn’t one of the wrestlers in that position. American Omega now has a legitimate reason to get another shot at the titles. I’m not as concerned about the wild inconsistencies that this little snafu has brought to light (ref’s decision is final) because WWE has shat all over consistency for years now. Give me more AO and Uso!

Harper Lee: I was very excited when American Beta won the belts. I thought that the ref’s decision was final. That didn’t feel very final to me. I think that this was garbage and I am very unsatisfied with the refereeing this week. Also, the finish of the match made no sense. Why did Chad get on the top rope to attempt to hit that finishing move if he was never tagged in? Why didn’t the ref stop it? This all seemed like a waste of time between 2 great teams. To use the words of my mentor, I was not Kentertained!

Keri’s Verdict: When the initial ending happened, I thought awesome, they are starting the year off on a high note. And then the ref confusion happened and in the end the Usos retained. Then I thought well that was nice for 5 seconds and now we are back to the same old crap. Oh well. Points time! Harper, you are growing in knowledge, padawan and therefore I give you one point.

AJ Styles is scheduled to face Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens at the Royal Rumble for the WWE Title. Was this a smart move? Discuss.

Anonyruss: Uhh, smart move? I don’t know? Do I like watching potentially show stealing matches? Yes! AJ facing both Sami and Kevin should prove to be one of the best matches we will see before Mania possibly the entire year! Granted, AJ vs KO was never really above average, but I think with the addition of Sami we can finally see AJ and KO deliver. I do have one concern. How the hell is this going to work? It is a handicap match for the title? So who gets the belt if KO and Sami win? Is it the person who pins AJ? Do we get co-champions? I hope they tell us this stuff before The Rumble, because enquiring minds want to know!

Harper Lee: NOOOOOOO! There goes my pick of having Sami Zayn win the Royal Rumble. I don’t like this one bit! So if Sami wins, are him and Kevin the champs? This is a logical fallacy. My Pappy was hootin and a hollerin at the TV. He was saying that you can’t have 2 World Champs, and I happen to agree. Technically, if Sami or Kevin win, they are a part of a team. This seems incredibly convoluted. I hope that Sami wins, but they need to do a better job explaining this until I stop pouting.

Keri’s Verdict: Yes, AJ vs. Sami and KO has the potential to be the match of the year…for the WWE. With that said, I too am confused on how things would work if KO and Sami win the belt off of AJ which is why it will probably not happen. With that said, points time. Both individuals basically said the same thing in their responses. So, one point to each person.

Bonus Time: Each week Anonyruss and Harper Lee will choose a topic that hasn’t been discussed in this week’s blog. In the event of a tie after 5 questions, Keri will use these extra thoughts to help her declare a winner.:

Anonyruss: Not that I’m trying to garner Judge Keri’s favor, but I watched the Kenny Omega vs Chris Jericho match. It was good. Really good! I see why people like Kenny Omega. I also like that Jericho at his age can still go. The match was 45 minutes, but he kept up with Omega. I do have a few concerns. While the match was very good it was very spot filled and a lot of the 45 minutes was filled with laying around so that both guys could catch their breaths. I guess one good thing was the fact that we didn’t have to see jericho or Omega kick out of more than one finisher. Still these are minor complaints to an overall fun match.

Harper Lee: Somebody done screwed up the image for the Women’s Royal Rumble. As a woman, I am very saddened to see what they have done to poor Paige’s face. They need to fix this injustice, no matter how mean Paige is. That poor girl has been through enough. She don’t need this nonsense as well.

Keri’s Final Verdict: Final point for Anonyruss and Anonyruss wins the week.

Final Thoughts:

Anonyruss: RAW was good, Smackdown was alright, and Omega and Jericho delivered. Good start to the new year of wrestling. Let’s hope they continue this trend throughout the year!

Harper Lee: Good start to the year! I can’t wait to hear this week’s 2017 year in review episode of Are You Not Kentertained. I look forward to listening to it. I just wish Russ wouldn’t interrupt people so much.

Keri: Wrestle Kingdom 12 was awesome. It was a great show from top to bottom and will be the best wrestling show I’m probably going to see in 2018. I’m so glad I got up at 2 am to watch it live. I think I now have a new annual tradition. Tune into next week’s episode of Are You Not Kentertained and listen to Keri’s Korner to get my thoughts on everything that happened at Wrestle Kingdom 12.

Hi, this is Kent again. Normally you would see this line at the end of this paragraph and listen to our podcast: ” We talked about this, plus much more on this week’s episode of Are You Not Kentertained which you can also subscribe to on iTunes.” Unfortunately, I came down with bronchitis earlier in the week, so it got cancelled. I apologize. This coming week, we will be doing a year in review podcast and possible blog as well. Please enjoy.

RAW has new tag team champions. Pick a name for this new tag team then discuss. (This is a two point question)

Anonyruss: Since it is the season to be jolly I am going to try and be as positive about things as possible. With that said I just want to quickly say that I am a fan of the Jason Jordan heel turn that has been progressing. So I’m very ticked off that they seemingly stopped that for now in favor of putting him in a tag team with Rollins. Jesus WWE, Finn Balor is doing nothing! Jordan had a classic heel turn going and they decided to derail it! Ok, positive time! I’m going to pick Cesaro out of those names. Sure he lost, but I’m pretty sure this could be a big opportunity for him. Sheamus is suffering some kind of injury that could be career threatening. This is a good time to have him sit on the side while Cesaro moves his singles career forward. They could put him in the mix to take Roman’s IC title. WWE could even have him be a great opponent for Brock, doubt they will… I mean you never know… Tis the Season!

Harper Lee: What a question! I sat here twirling my hair for….an embarrassingly long time thinking about this. My Pappy has always told me that if you’re gon’ be the tag team champions, you need to have a team name, not just 2 single guys. So rather than going with some hackneyed combination of their names, I wanted to be creative and really think about who these guys are. HHH handpicked The Architect to be the representative for The Authority 2 years ago, thank you WWE Network for helping me catch up. I know that Jason Jordan seems to get favorable treatment from his pappy. So here it is: The Chosen. They have both been chosen from higher powers. I don’t like this pairing. I see somebody like Finn Balor doing nothing while this whiny jerk Jordan gets all of these opportunities. I don’t get it. How are these guys going to get along? Oh lordy, this gon’ end poorly I tell you.

Keri’s Verdict: I didn’t understand this pairing or the resulting title change. Yet this strange turn of events intrigues me. With that said, it’s time to award points. Both Harper and Anonyruss pretty much summed up my opinion on this question. However, this was a two point question and one person missed that part of the question. Harper, however, did not and therefore gets the two points.

Asuka is now announced for the Women’s Royal Rumble. Do you think she’s winning? If so, do you see her winning the title at Wrestlemania?

Anonyruss: AAAAAANND we now know who is going to win the Women’s Royal Rumble. WWE made a stupid mistake here (damn, gotta stay positive.) I mean, WWE has given us a great opportunity to focus on the other stories going on during the Women’s Royal Rumble, because the ending is pretty much locked. I don’t see James Ellsworth anywhere so I’m pretty sure a woman is winning this and why not Asuka. If she doesn’t then we will have to put an asterisk next to her undefeated streak. So then if she wins the Rumble will she win at Mania? Yes! Yes! Yes!

Harper Lee: So I think I mentioned this last week, but my Pappy has been sitting me down and showing me a bunch of the old Royal Rumbles, so I am getting a better understanding of what to expect. It appears that WWE splits whether they want to go with the most obvious choice or somebody who could use the rub more. My momma makes this delicious rub for her fried chicken. It is so good. We’re going to have some of that good chicken and cornbread on New Year’s Eve. I can’t wait. SInce it’s the first and this will be something that will be attached to this woman’s resume the rest of her career, they cannot mess this up. If Charlotte and Alexa are out, how many other women do you think WWE feels comfortable giving this to? It’s definitely the Empress of Tomorrow. I also have now tried wearing my thong outside of my shorts. Daddy was not happy, and then it just made it easier for my brother to give me a wedgie. Not cool, Eric!

Keri’s Verdict: Asuka is the best and only choice to win the first time ever historical Women’s Royal Rumble. There is no other woman out there who is more dominant on the women’s roster than her. It is the obvious choice but also the most logical choice. Now for points, both pretty much summed up my thoughts on the situation but Harper is really bring her creative A game this week and I have to award her a point here. If only so I can try the fried chicken she mentioned in her answer.

American Alpha 2.0 is number one contender but Rusev Day seems to be the most over team at the moment. Was this a mistake on the part of the Smackdown writers? Discuss

Anonyruss: This is a tough one. Both teams are fantastic in their own rights. American Omega are proving to be one of the most fun to watch tag teams in the ring. Rusev Day is just the best at everything. I mean they have a day named after them! Was this a mistake? Absolutely not! Team AO is probably the most deserving team, they have been putting on fantastic matches the past few months. Pit them against The Uso’s and we could be seeing one of the best Tag Team Title matches of the year (I hope no one figures out that the year will have just started.)

Harper Lee: Well, I didn’t think this was a popularity contest. Now, I can speak to this because I was a contestant for a few years in the Little Southern Belle beauty contest. That most certainly is a popularity contest and nobody was wrestling, so I think that wrestling should be about talent. That Chad Gable seems to be something special. Not only that, Rusev has a day named after him, so why not give Chad something, even if it’s as insignificant as a belt? By the way, the original winner of the Little Southern Belle was Debbie McKee. You may know her for her delicious snack cakes under the name Little Debbie.

Keri’s Verdict: Both teams are very deserving and I will agree that American Omega or Alpha 2.0 has the momentum right now and deserves the #1 contendership. They also deserve a team name. With that said, I’ve never seen either Rusev or Aiden English more over with the fans than they are right now. This needs and should be capitalized on sooner rather than later. We all have to remember that WWE fans are a fickle bunch and what is popular today may not be two months from now. Maybe they should be the next ones in line for a title feud after American Omega is done with the Usos. Ok, now for to award points. Anonyruss resumed reading my mind this week and for that I must award a point.

A United States Title tournament was announced on Smackdown this week with Jinder Mahal and Bobby Roode advancing in the first round. What are your thoughts on all of this?

Anonyruss: Well, I’m not sure if I agree with the decision to have Dolph vacate the belt, unless there is an endgame planned. The only way this works is if Bobby ends up winning the tournament. The way I see this going down is that they have Bobby win the belt through the tournament, and then have Dolph come out and attack Bobby. Then Bobby and Dolph continue their feud, but now it will involve the US title. I’m ok with this story as long as they bring Dolph back somehow. If not, then this was all just stupid. You know what really sucks about this? Bobby needs a great match, which still has eluded him since his call up. Well if this plays out the way I think this is going to it means that his opponent is going to be Jinder at the Rumble. I guess we won’t be seeing that great match for awhile.

Harper Lee: I don’t get this. One week Baron wrestles with his shirt off, now it’s back on.I don’t like the man, I think he is a mean, no good son of a…..well you know. Still, shouldn’t he have been given a bye in the first round as the most recent champion? Also, who is this Tye Dillinger guy and what has he done to earn a championship opportunity? Is he any good? Can he only count to ten? Does he have a learning disability? Does he know how bad his hair looks? Also, I am just so sick of Jinder. Go away. We don’t take kindly to people like Jinder around here. He’s soooo veiny, it’s disgusting. We had a veiny man about 2 miles down the road and my brother and uncle and Pappy all got in their trucks and told that vascular gentleman that it was time to leave. Who wants to see that anyway? It’s gross. I hope Bobby Roode wins it. I sing along to his song when he comes out, or when I’m showering, or baking, or pretty much anything. It’s Glorious!

Keri’s Verdict: I still think this thing with Dolph is a work. I also think that Creative maybe recycling storylines again. Remember a few years back when CM Punk left with the WWE title after his MITB win and there was a tournament to crown a new WWE champ which just so happen to be Cena. Then after the new champ was crowned static and Cult of Personality played and out came Punk. Why do I think I’m going to see the same thing happen in this case? I think we are going to see a new champ crowned and Dolph coming out and saying he never actually relinquished the title. But, I digress, you are not here to read my opinion and you just want to see who I reward points to for this question. Well, it looks like both are on the same page as to who is winning this thing. However, I do enjoy Harper’s creative response here so one point for Harper.

With Shinsuke Nakamura announcing himself as a Royal Rumble entrant on this week’s Smackdown,we have the potential of getting a dream match at Wrestlemania. Do you think this is setting up Nakamura vs AJ Styles at Wrestlemania?

Anonyruss: AAAAAANND we now know who is going to win the Men’s Royal Rumble. God Damn it WWE can’t you leave us some surprises for this year! Alright, this isn’t as forgone a conclusion as the women’s was, but with WWE being WWE I am pretty sure how this is going to go. RAW doesn’t need the Rumble because they have been telegraphing Brock vs Roman since WrestleMania last year. So that leaves Smackdown winning it. WWE will probably want to have this dream match at WrestleMania to drum up excitement. However, I can see KO or even Sami winning this year as well, which I believe Kent would back me up on that Sami prediction. All of those matches are fine with me, though I am not so sure about KO vs AJ. We’ve already seen that and it was very underwhelming.

Harper Lee: Who’s dream is this? I don’t understand why this is a dream match up. I’m sorry, I don’t keep up on a lot of things online, so I am sure I am missing something. My dream match up would be AJ Styles vs Luke Harper because of his name, and his beard kinda reminds me of my daddy’s. Now that would be a great Wrestlemania main event. I’d rather see Shinsuke vs Hideo Itami vs Finn Balor in a big time strikers match.

Keri’s Verdict: Let’s look at the past 6 months of the WWE and look at the “dream” match ups that have already happened. We’ve already been given Roman vs Cena and Finn Balor vs AJ Styles. There is only one matchup that would give smark wrestling fans something they want to see at Wrestlemania and that match up is AJ Styles vs Nakamura. Lets face it the card at Mania as it potentially stands right now is pretty bland. We’ve seen Roman vs Brock and we all know how this match is going to turn out. AJ vs Nakamura would bring something potentially exciting and new to the card. With that said, time to award points. Anonyruss’ response was pretty much what I was looking for when this question was asked so one point for Anonyruss.

Bonus Time: Each week Anonyruss and Harper Lee will choose a topic that hasn’t been discussed in this week’s blog. In the event of a tie after 5 questions, Keri will use these extra thoughts to help her declare a winner.:

Anonyruss: Probably won’t get any points for this, but it’s the holiday season and I’m going to reward myself! Seth Rollins is once again a Champion! Sure it is only the Tag Team Championship, but with that and the IC title the only ones really used on RAW it is a big deal! Seth has won that championship belt with a lot of partners, so you know what that means? He has to be the reason they keep winning! WOOOOOO SETH! Can’t wait to see him and Jason this weekend when I go to see them Live!

Harper Lee: I really enjoyed how great of friends the Ascension are to Breezedango. They came out and helped their buddies. I think Konnor is hitting the gym. He didn’t look so bulky this week. Good for him. I still want Luke to give them all a whuppin.

Keri’s Verdict: I enjoyed both responses this week and since it is the holiday’s I’m in a very giving mood. I’m award both Anonyruss and Harper a point here.

Final Thoughts:

Anonyruss: I hope all the readers out their have had a great holiday season. Keep with us here on the blog for the next year, because with Kent and Russ gone it is sure to be must read! Enjoy!

Harper Lee: I don’t think that it’s fair that these performers and all of the backstage people had to work a live show on Christmas. I feel that this is wrong and I hope that this never happens again. The holidays are a time to celebrate with friends, family, and some moonshine. This year, Pappy’s batch came out really good. Tuesday was a rough day.

Keri: For what is usually a throwaway week, the WWE did a really good job on both shows this year. Also, I have to congratulate Harper on her first blog win. Great job Harper! Also, readers, Keri’s Korner returns next week on the Are You Not Kentertained podcast. In next week’s segment, I will preview and give my picks for this Thursday’s Wrestle Kingdom 12. Happy New Year Everyone!

Hi, this is Kent. I hope that you really liked last week’s format because we are changing this up again. You see, Russ and I have busies schedules as of late. We have been in contact with our fans, and they are going to try to fill our roles in the blog. Keri has no life, just a full time job and a full time student, so she has plenty of time. She is now the new host of this blog and she will be asking 5 questions and a bonus one and our new guests, Anonyruss and Harper Lee will be answering them. I will add stuff as I see fit, but this opens up some time, and Keri is a great host. I am so proud of her. So I hope that you enjoy. We talked about this, plus much more on this week’s episode of Are You Not Kentertained which you can also subscribe to on iTunes.

Monday night on RAW a historic announcement was made regarding the first-time ever Women’s Royal Rumble. Discuss this announcement and who you think will benefit the most from this match.

Anonyruss: I have to give this props. This is a big announcement. Two Rumbles in one night is ok in my book. I just hope that it’s an actual Royal Rumble and that it is over the top rope, not that second rope bullshit. Can I just say how odd it was that the girls were brawling and when Steph’s music hit they all just stopped and acted like they were in trouble. Then they all stood united behind her during the announcement. I’m just saying that was odd and kind of stupid. I definitely think this benefits Becky Lynch. I’m not sure why, but I just feel WWE is finally going to give her that push we all know she deserves.

Harper Lee: My, oh my, was this something or was this SOMETHING? It’s so amazing to watch these great female athletes shine week in and week out. As Stephanie mentioned, it is truly breathtaking to see how far these ladies have come. I have heard stories from my daddy about when there used to be mud wrasslin and bra and panties matches. I’m still somewhat new to WWE, but these girls are freaking amazing! I love Sasha Banks. She is just too adorable. I felt really empowered during this announcement. I hope that WWE makes sure to let the fans know just how important this is. And did you see how happy Nia was? That girl is a true beauty and I think it’s so cute how she acts around Enzo. I hope they do something with them on Total Divas.

Keri’s Verdict: This was a historical announcement and it’s been a long time coming for the women. I agree with Harper and Anonyruss on that front. However, I have to award points now and I have to say that Anonyruss has a slight edge on this one because he mentioned by girl, Becky. So, one point for Anonyruss.

Hideo Itami and the Revival returned to Monday Night RAW this week. Discuss both returns and which one do you feel would have more of an impact moving forward.

Anonyruss: This was a great surprise! Hideo Itami is a fantastic wrestler and is really going to bring more viewers to 205. I mean I may even watch his match on 205, that’s saying something. I just hope he stops getting injured because he deserves a decent push. As for The Revival, I’m glad they are back, but during their match last night I kept on thinking who is going to get injured this time? They are getting over two big injuries and that has to be tough mentally. Granted the injuries happened one to both men, but one right after the other to the team has really hurt them. Still their match against the Ginger Rhynos had some of their signature flavor and while this wasn’t their best work, I’m willing to let them get the ring rust off. These guys will make a huge impact on the Tag division. Which is great because it is in sorry shape, especially with Dean being injured!

Harper Lee: I don’t really know how to feel. I don’t watch NXT, but I guess he came from there and was in a tag team with Finn. Speaking of Finn, my goodness, does that man have some abs on him. Ohhhh, I’m getting a little hot under the collar just thinking about him. What was the question again? Oh yeah, I have only seen The Revival in 3 or 4 matches. I don’t get it. They were naming off all of these names of past tag teams. I watched it with my family and my daddy and my uncles were hootin and a hollerin about the Anderson and Rock N Roll Express. I guess these guys must be great to get those kind of comparisons. Still, Hideo helped FInn. I can’t wait to see what his finishing move is.

Keri’s Verdict: So, both individuals praised Itami and that was what I was going for on this question. Given the fact that I’m now a fan of the show Being the Elite, it feels weird to me to support the Revival. So, with that said and I hope our blog doesn’t get a cease and desist from the WWE stooge for me saying this but F**k the Revival. Now for my verdict, Harper mentioned Finn Balor’s abs and that will always give you a slight edge with me on anything. Therefore, one point for Harper. (Kent: Uhmmmm, excuse you. Fuck the Revival? We will be having words later.)

Elias is the first participant announced for the 2018 Royal Rumble for the RAW brand. Discuss his chances.

Anonyruss: I must have missed that part where he made this announcement, but that is neither here nor there. He has about a snowball’s chance in hell to win this. I like Elias he has a great gimmick, but he isn’t ready for the main event, not yet anyway. I think he might get an elimination or two but I think that is the best we can hope for. It would be great that when he comes out for the Rumble he takes a seat and plays us a song while everyone else wrestles in the ring. Then the next guy comes out and drags him to the ring. That’s wrestling gold!

Harper Lee: Now I don’t know about you folks, but where I come from, Elias’ music is really popular. He has quite the singing voice, and yes, I do want to take a walk with Elias, only if he’ll sing to me though. I like how’s dressed and he looked really good against Roman a couple of weeks ago. My lil sister told me that Elias is an evil man, but can a man with those eyes truly be evil? I asked my daddy to show me a Royal Rumble over the weekend. He told me how great it was, and OMG, this is the single most epic match I have ever seen, I do declare. It’s so exciting to see who comes out next. It’s so unpredictable. I don’t know how I am supposed to guess how Elias does when he’s facing 29 other boys. I will say that he finishes in 6th place. Do you get anything for 6th place? Either way, I am so excited!! 🙂

Keri’s Verdict: Elias has the makings of a main event star. But I agree with Anonyruss, it’s too soon. With that said though, I do like Harpers optimism about how he will do in the Rumble. If you look at performance on RAW the past few weeks, Elias should be in the top 10. Therefore, I think Harper is onto something here. Now for my verdict. This was a hard decision because each individual had what I was looking for in their response so both individuals get a point.

Ziggler won and then possibly relinquished the US title. What do you think this segment means for Ziggler and the title?

Anonyruss: So, I don’t think Ziggler actually relinquished the title. I mean he could have, but just leaving out in the ring doesn’t exactly mean that he gave it up. As for the whole segment. I liked it! Ziggler is awesome and he never gets the praise he deserves. I’m glad he listed all of his accomplishments because we fans sometimes forget how good someone is based on current booking. The pop Ziggler got when he cashed in his MitB briefcase was crazy. We don’t get pops like that anymore. The angle WWE is going for is definitely intriguing. He goes out their and shows everyone why he deserved to be in the match. He then won the match. Instead of throwing it in the fans faces, which is typical WWE, He decided to say screw the WWE universe I don’t need this. Will we find out more next week? I doubt it? Next week is about as much of a throwaway week as you can get. I expect to learn more once we are into the new year.

Harper Lee: I am so confused. I started watching over the summer. He feuded with Bobby Roode and then disappeared. I thought this was just a loudmouth jerk. I didn’t realize that he was a legitimate good wrestler with all of those titles. I am so sad for him if this is it for him. When I watched it, I screamed at the TV “Hey Dolph, you forgot your title!” Then my brother, Eric, he swatted me upside the back of my head, which was VERY RUDE, Eric, since I know you are reading this. Boy, my daddy ripped into him. Took him right out back to our woodshed. I think he had to chop some wood during commercial breaks. Anyway, I don’t know. Is Dolph really sad? I want him to come back. He was dating that really funny girl, Amy Schumer, and she is hilarious, so I want Dolph to do well. I hope that he comes back to get the belt. Wait, somebody moved the belt during commercial. Who did it? I hope that the Fashion Files can figure this out.

Keri’s Verdict: Anonyruss again read my mind with his answer to this question which scares me a little. These were literally my thoughts except I heard Rihanna singing work, work, work in my head while I was thinking it. The point goes to Anonyruss.

Tag Team time. We had American Beta beat the champs. Rusev Claus ruin flapjacks but Rusev Day did not beat Santa’s flapjack loving elves (aka The New Day). Discuss all that was tag team this week on Smackdown.

Anonyruss: If this week didn’t convince you that Smackdown’s tag division is the superior division in WWE then I don’t know what to tell you. When a stupid holiday gimmick match is the most over thing on your product, you know that says something about the participants. Rusev and Aiden were gold and they had the crowd eating out of their hands. WWE will ruin Rusev Day soon enough, but I’m going to enjoy it while they are still technically the bad guys. The New Day were no slouches either. The costumes everyone wore were just the best! Kofi Bread Man may have been my favorite, though Aiden Snowman was a close second. The match itself was good fun. Sure New Day won, but the match as a whole was entertaining. As for America Omega (they have earned my respect enough to stop calling them Beta.) and The Uso’s match, I thought it was a great match. Definitely like the chemistry these two teams have and Gable is a machine! His rollover German Suplexes looked devastating. I’m also shocked that they got a clean win over The Uso’s. This match was my favorite of the week.

Harper Lee: I don’t know about you, but I kinda have a thing for Chad. He is really good in the ring. Maybe if you give him a haircut and I could give him my number. My uncle was going on and on about how Shelton used to be on the world’s greatest tag team. So I was like, okay, what were they called? He says that they were the world’s greatest tag team. I get that, but he wouldn’t tell me their name. SOmetimes my uncle is a jerk when he’s had too much shine. If Naomi thinks that she has the GLOW, let me tell you, my Uncle has a GLOW on after a bottle of shine. I don’t get why there’s a Rusev Day and a New Day. We already have 7 days. We don’t need 9….or do we? But everyday is Rusev Day. How would anybody know how to schedule appointments? “Yeah, we’ll meet up with you next Rusev Day?” That is so confusing! I kinda like Rusev’s accent though and Aiden has a dreamy voice. He can sing me to sleep any night…in my room. I don’t understand why Big E wasn’t in the match, he seems to be the funniest one. Come WWE, humor me!

Keri’s Verdict: I’m in agreement with Anonyruss that American Beta deserves a name upgrade to American Omega. They looked great this week. As for Rusev Day and The New Day. I love both teams and the stuff that they are doing is pure magic. Ok verdict time, Anonyruss basically summed up all my thoughts for the week so I award him the point.

Bonus Question: Time for Bonus Points. Dean Ambrose is legitimately injured. What does this mean for the Shield and the go forward plan for him and Seth? Rumor is he may miss Mania.

Anonyruss: Well that sucked! I saw the moment Dean got injured several times, thanks WWE replay, and I gotta say that was very fluke (ish)! I am not sure how he injured it. It looks like he runs into the camera after Seth dove, but Seth barely touched Dean. Dean went flying back way more than would have been expected. I wonder if he got his feet tangled up with another guy and just kind of tripped. Anyway, that is bad timing. Good thing The Revival is back, because RAW’s Tag division was in lots of trouble if Seth and Dean weren’t a part of it. What does it mean for The Shield? Well without Dean I guess we call them The Shld? Seriously though, Roman has a title to defend and with Johnny C. coming back next week, something tells me he will be occupied by him. As for Seth… *sigh* I guess he will drop down with Finn and have nothing to do. That blows. I hope Dean makes it back in time for Mainia, but all I’ve heard is that his surgery is this week and nothing else.

Harper Lee: Oh my God, does Renee know yet? OMG, I feel so bad for whoever has to tell her. I hope that they don’t show it on Total Divas. OK, I kinda do hope they show it on Total Divas. By the way, did you see that clip of Miz trying to get Maryse to eat meat? That girl clearly is not from around here. My Daddy cut us up a hog in August and it was sooo good. I ate too much. My parents insisted that I go on a diet until I can fit in my dress again for my special day. Hopefully it doesn’t fall on Rusev Day. Can you imagine the invitations? I’ve been reading these blogs for a few weeks and I think that Kent will appreciate this. I think that we may have to call Seth and Roman the Shel because they ain’t got no D! Kent will get that one…I hope. I tried. Renee, you’re in our thoughts and prayers. (Kent: I was Kentertained Harper!)

Keri’s Verdict: This injury sucks big time for Dean and further depletes a very thin tag team division. I agree with Anonyruss that it does nothing more than that. Roman still has the IC title to worry about and Seth well he has Jason Jordan and Samoa Joe to worry about or whatever. Harper mentioned Renee and out of the two people (her and Dean) that I can see going crazy during Dean’s rehabilitation period, it’s Renee. Dean is going to drive that poor girl nuts. Also, I like how she renamed the Shield. It was very creative. With that said, both receive a point.

Final Thoughts:

Anonyruss: This time of year usually sucks for WWE. They are in the Holiday lull, which usually means holding patterns on their stories. You can see that with almost every story going on. I mean look who was missing This week. Bludgeon Bros / Breezdango / Roman / Mojo and Zack / Corbin (ok he showed up but did nothing.) / Bobby and several others I don’t want to list out. They all had stories rolling into this week and we are going to have to wait to see what happens with them. However, I have to give WWE some credit this year. Instead of making this a two week blow off fest they are keeping things fun and entertaining. With fun matches and stupid gimmicks that aren’t groan inducing. This is the first year in a long while that these two weeks don’t make me want to take a two week hiatus from WWE. Now, I said it a week early so watch next week suck a big one.

Harper Lee: I am having such a good time doing this. I can’t believe that Kent is letting me do this. You guys are fun. I think that this is going to be really fun, especially once I’m off of this diet. I can’t wait for the Royal Rumble. I’m picking Sami Zayn to win if he’s in it! I know that this blog doesn’t cover 205 Live, but I watched it Tuesday and it was really good. I highly recommend it to anybody who wants good stories and wrestling. This week was super fun. The opening match and final match were really good.

Keri: All and all this was a really good week. I’m excited about the Women’s Royal Rumble match. I think it’s a long time coming honestly. There were good matches and we saw Rusev Claus. WWE did not disappoint me this week. Good job! Oh and your winner for this week is ……..Anonyruss.

Kent: Hey, I found 2 links that I wanted to share with you. One if a funny video with Braun as an Elf and then the second is WWE’s list of top 25 matches of 2017. Man, I bet that’s an upcoming blog for us.

This week and for the foreseeable future, we are trying a different format. We know that this blog gets very redundant. In an effort to ensure varying perspectives, one of us will be judging the other 2 people’s response. This week, that task fell on Kent. Let us know if this format works better or if it’s worse. We are never going to be complacent. We look forward to trying to be a fun, must read wrestling blog, so share your opinion. This week, we had a plethora of good matches including Sami vs Randy, Roman vs Jordan, The Shie vs Sheasaro, the second Cruiserweight 4 way, Rusev Day vs New Day, Paige vs Sasha, and even the Asuka vs Alicia match. We talked about this, plus much more on this week’s episode of Are You Not Kentertained which you can also subscribe to on iTunes.

Should WWE have tried to make a star by putting the belt on Cesaro tonight?

Russ: Cesaro is already a star, that much is obvious. However, he isn’t a star in the same vein as John Cena / Randy / or even Roman. Cesaro put on an amazing match against Roman for the IC championship. So amazing that the crowd was erupting for every move toward the end. Given the match and the atmosphere I could see that if WWE had pulled the trigger and given Cesaro the belt here it could have been the start of a push to elevate him into the top tier of stardom that we all want him to have. However, I’m going to say that WWE made the right call here. Cesaro is already Tag Champion and having both of these two particular belts at the same time would hurt both belts. It would be very difficult for Cesaro to raise The Bar (see what I did there.) for the Tag Championship while trying to maintain the IC championship. Sure, Cesaro is the kind of guy that I think has the best opportunity to do both, but I have a feeling that The Bar only has a limited time left and the IC title and possibly the RAW title are both in his future and the opportunity to become a mega star is still there.

Keri: Something is bothering me about this question. We act like Cesaro is not a star but he is a star. He is in a top tier level feud with top tier guys. He’s one half of the tag team champs and he is over with the crowd. He’s already a made “star”. I think the question that should be asked here is should Cesaro have been given an opportunity for a singles title run? In answer to that question, I say yes. Yes, he should have been given the opportunity but WWE has had multiple opportunities to give him a singles title run over the past few years and they have failed to do so. Let’s keep in mind that Cesaro’s last singles title run was back in 2012 to 2013 when he held the US title for 239 days. WWE booking has had over 4 years to give him another opportunity and they haven’t so I think at this point we should just appreciate that at least he is a star in the eyes of Creative and at least holds one of the belts (for now).

Kent: I award zero points. Both of you seem to think that Cesaro is a star. He’s not a made star. Made stars get great singles matches on PPV. Last year Sheamus and Cesaro had their last real singles feud. That actually was at last year’s Clash of Champions. Yes, it accomplished some cool shit, but that is really missing the point. CAN WWE put Cesaro in a singles match on PPV in a meaningful way? I don’t know. They haven’t shown a willingness to. You can’t say that about any of the WWE’s actual stars. Stars gets singles opportunities. Sorry, zero points.

Honestly, does it appear to you that WWE just said screw it, let’s have the other black guy in the 205 division win the match after Rich Swann’s arrest? This isn’t me insulting Cedric’s achievements, simply an observation.

Russ: It would seem like that, but let’s take a look at who our faces are on 205 that we see on a regular basis. These faces are: Mustafa, Cedric, and until this week Rich. Honestly, I think everyone else on 205 is a heel. It seems 205 has done a lot to build up heels, but is completely lacking superior faces. So now that it could only have been Mustafa and Cedric it is clear who you had to push. Cedric is the better more deserving talent. This had nothing to do with race even though it totally looks like that.

Keri: I don’t think race played a role at all. Perhaps, WWE is taking a chance on Cedric to see what he can do in the title picture. The only problem is it doesn’t matter what Cedric does in the title picture. He is cannon fodder for what will be an eventual Enzo and Gulak feud. Yes that is where we are heading folks, Enzo promos, Nia making googly eyes at Enzo, and powerpoint presentations. WWE creative, you do not entertain me.

Kent: Keri wins this one by virtue of not exposing herself for not know the faces on 205. Akira Tozawa says hello to Russ. I don’t think it was race related, but there could be a perception, and I felt the need to ask it. Rich wasn’t going to get the belt, and as Keri accurately points out, cedric is simply cannon fodder from what they have provided us in the story. Keri gets a point.

Well it appears that the Braun and Kane feud will go on until Royal Rumble at least. If it ends up a triangle match with Brock Lesnar, will it be any good?

Russ: Let’s be clear about this right now. Royal Rumble will be a triple threat match. Braun is super over with the fans (Check!). WWE wants to keep him strong to make him look like an unmatchable monster (Double Check!). These are facts. This next fact is what ties the whole thing together. Brock isn’t losing the belt until WrestleMania (Triple Check!). You gotta make a star out of Roman don’t you? What better way to do that by giving him the Brock Rub. I mean he definitely needs it! So how does WWE keep Braun strong while competing against Brock? You don’t give him the win, that makes too much sense. No, you simply put in a third competitor who can eat the pin for you because nobody cares about that competitor. That is what Kane is there to do. As for the match being any good? I doubt it. Kane has lost several steps as a competitor and Brock only knows suplexes as moves.

Keri: So, I’m going to answer this question with a question. What is the point of adding Brock to this feud if the outcome is not to put over Braun? Braun, after what will be a triple threat match at Rumble, should be holding the title. That is the only way this match makes any sense. But alas, that is not going to happen. Braun is going to job to two part timers and we are going to get Roman vs. Brock at Mania (after Roman wins the Rumble yet again) and we are going to have to deal with it whether we like it or not. Well WWE, since this is where I know that this is your inevitable end game is heading, I think I’m not going to waste 7 hours of my life to watch predictable matches and poorly done feuds and just skip watching Mania all together this year. You ok with that? Ok good. Glad we have that sorted out.

Kent: To answer Keri’s questions, girl you crazy. This isn’t to put Braun over. He’s not Samoan. It’s to put over Brock to put over Roman. Remember our friends at UNcreative. With all of your questions out of the way, I present to you this theory. Roman isn’t winning the Rumble, he just gets whatever he wants anyways. WWE is going to listen to me for once. I said the best Mania main event would be Brock vs Roman vs Braun. That still stands. Either Roman and Braun win the Rumble, or they just keep fighting and include Brock. Either way, it accomplishes the end goal. Braun is winning at Rumble by pinning Kane. The Brock rub happens at Mania. Since Keri doesn’t want to watch the PPV that kinda is a huge deal in what we do, I award Russ the point.

We finally had a bit of a payoff with the Absolution and Asuka thing. Give me your thoughts on that. Also, what is happening with Alexa? She came in and looked very tentative and had one good slap on Sonya.

Russ: This was very underwhelming. I’ll start positive. I do like how Asuka gave no shits and kept attacking until she “Absolut”ely had no chance. That is about all I can say for the positive. The rest of the brawl was completely forgettable. Now for a rant. Holy balls RAW has completely buried their WWE women’s champion Alexa Bliss. For almost a year on Smackdown and a good 2-3 months on RAW she was the best thing going for the women. So how do you treat her? By giving her interesting angles and stories? Have her as a prominent center piece for the rest of the women’s division? HAHA, oh you silly goose those things make sense! No, you lose her in the shuffle and do just about fuck all with her. What a waster of Bliss’s talent.

Keri: This segment was ok. It was about time someone stood up to Absolution. With that said, that brawl was ugly. No one really stood out. Not even Asuka. As for Alexa, I’m ashamed at what has happened to her title reign as well as to her. She is being booked as very weak and the thing is she is not weak. Stupid Creative and their crappy booking. They had what three great weeks of women’s storylines on RAW and now this crap. And you all wonder why barely watch this stuff now.

Kent: OK, so no real new info here. No points.

Pick a RAW topic that hasn’t been discussed and get yourself some points. You got Fatt Hardy vs Bray promo, Jordan, Joe, Gallows The Good Brothers, Dana with Titus Worldwide, Enzo and Nia, Elias disappearance, etc. You can be funny, entertaining, insightful. Make this the thing that the fans reading will be thinking about when they have closed this page or tab.

Russ: Instead of doing all the things that Kent said I should do for this question I’m instead going to be a bit controversial. I’m going to talk about Jason Jordan here. He is quickly becoming one of my favorite parts on RAW. When he first came over to RAW in what can be argued as one of the stupidest “Angles” thrown at us this year (and there were a lot of terrible “Kurts” this year, I’m looking at you Kane.) He was terrible on the mic and for the most part unproven as a singles competitor. Basically, he sucked! However, instead of WWE doing what it does best, which is burn through its load quicker than Kent eating 10 Slim Jims and then forget it ever happened. Creative decided to roll with the punches and turn this thing around. The crowd hated Jordan, with good reason, even when it was apparent that he did have in ring talent. He fought top stars in some very good matches, even though he ended up losing all of them. Creative decided that instead of forcing him down our throats as a face they slowly turned him into a tweener. Now he is in the midst of the best story going on RAW. I honestly look forward to seeing where his story is going now. Good for WWE not killing this talent and instead working on the “Angle” until the mold fit him better and produced a superior story!

Keri: Yea! It’s time for me to go on a rant that will hopefully get me points. It may not because it involves me ranting about former members of the Bullet Club. Yes, readers, I’m going to go on a rant about the treatment of Balor and Gallows and Anderson. First, let’s talk Finn Balor. We are talking about a guy who for one day (due to injury) held the Universal Championship and was the first one to hold the title. We are also talking about a guy who had all the buzz in the world when he arrived in NXT and debuted on the main roster. And now, he’s in a feud with the lackeys of the Miztourage. The guy is talented in the ring and it seems like because he doesn’t fit some big man ideal (i.e. Cena, Roman, Brock, Braun, etc.) he is not worthy of a push. Now onto the other two former members of the Bullet Club. Yes I’m talking about Anderson and Gallows. We have one of the best tag teams in the WWE (if not in all of wrestling) who again debuted strong and had a short tag team title run who are now regulated to Main Event and backstage RAW segments with talent that would be considered, well jobbers. In whose warped world is Anderson and Gallows considered jobbers? Oh yeah, WWE creatives world that’s who. I tell you if I was a conspiracy theorist I would almost think there was a conspiracy at play here. Why you ask? Because, it seems that the staged BC invasion this past summer has had repercussions for the former members (and the founder and first leader) of the Bullet Club not named AJ Styles. Just look at what has happened since then with all three individuals. It makes you wonder how petty WWE really is, don’t it?

Kent: Soooo, fortunately Russ can read well and noticed the second option I provided, Jordan, and then continued to think, fuck Kent, he didn’t say this. This is a Russ original. Kudos to you Russ. Keri, well she stayed away from the puns, thank you. While I am torn on Finn as a top guy, he’s certainly out of my top 10 male performers, he can serve a purpose and they are missing the boat on him and merchandising. As for G & A, they need to be back with AJ to beat people up. You both bring up compelling thoughts, but one of you can read better than the other. Keri gets the point, and yes, WWE can be that petty. I have to say, I am not into the in’s and out’s of major companies, but I follow WWE. For such a huge company, they seemingly do a lot of petty shit and it’s really insufferable at times. No, we aren’t always privy to the why, but we make educated assumptions, and we have to be correct a percentage of times. It’s all stupid bullshit and it’s infuriating. It’s like, why have this company if you’re going to act this way. Talking about the treatment of Finn, Bray, Luke, G&A, the Titus thing, Mauro’s ordeal, hell go back even to CM Punk, or how WWE treated JR, and there’s a long ass list of others. It’s disheartening.

Is the Smackdown Tag Team division currently the strongest division in WWE?

Russ: Yes. It is so evident that I don’t even have to bring up any other examples, but I will. Hey RAW and Smackdown how are those Heavyweight Division going for you? Are your top belts defended on a monthly basis? Are they the most intriguing stories going? Nah, I’m sure they are fine! How about those women’s divisions? Oh, are you just sitting on them waiting for the 4 whoreswomen of MMA to come? Yea, thats a good idea! I mean we all want to see these 4 women come in because we care about them soooooo much! Finally, RAW’s tag division is full of teams that are so worthy of the belts! I mean you have… Shesaro and The Shie…. And….Shesaro! Yea! Oh, I forgot 205! So did everyone else!

Keri: Yes it is. Well, it’s the only one that Creative has taken any time to book properly. There are two things Smackdown is attempting to book very well at the moment, the tag division and the SamiKO storyline. Everything else is well thrown together sloppily and it is very obvious to everyone watching.

Kent: Tht was a trick question and I had hoped one of you would refute it. The real answer is the IC Championship scene. That division is stacked because you rarely have anybody competing for the red belt, so that division is Brock/Braun/Kane. Just saying. No points.

Which championship match at Clash of Champions has the least momentum going for it heading into Sunday? I’m honestly unsure, so I am asking you to convince me that you’re right.

Russ: It would seem that the easy answer would be to go with the Women’s championship. We all loathe Charlotte and even as lackluster as everything else is for this Clash of Champions Kent will watch all of the matches save for this one. Still with the Riott Squad being involved and getting a lot of TV time I can’t say that this has the least momentum. I’m going to give it to the WWE Championship. Ever since Jinder won the belt way back in the summer it has felt like the belt has lost a lot of its shine. Terrible feuds and matches have ground all the momentum the belt has to a halt. Also, it is the most important belt in the WWE and yet hasn’t been in many Main Events. Charlotte is bad, but her belt was never that prominent to begin with. AJ Styles, who we can argue is the best in ring performer right now, has the belt right now and because of who he is going up against (Jinder) I still feel like who gives a shit!

Keri: The women’s championship match. Here is why, the storyline since Survivor Series as been about the Riott Squad and its feud with the rest of the women’s division. You know the same thing that is happening on RAW. This match isn’t about the champ and the number one contender for the title and Creative has done little convince me otherwise. In addition to that, we all know Charlotte is retaining so why are we bothering with a rematch? Well, other than the obvious rematch clause that is.

Kent: Well after reading Russ’ response, I was like, good for Russ getting the points. Then Keri brought it and did a hell of a job. I will give both of you a point, but I give Russ an additional point. My rationale is simple, whether you agree with it or not. Charlotte has been featured in a lot of matches lately, against legit competition. AJ….well he has not. On top of that, that’s supposed to be the THE belt. Neither of you are wrong though.

Which match will be better on Sunday: Zack vs Mojo or Breezedango vs Bludgeon Bros?

Russ: I think it will be decided by what you are looking for more. Entertainment or a decent match. Entertainment won’t get much better than Breezedango vs Bludgeon Bros. I’m not sure if they are going to be goofy or not, but these guys are always entertaining. Match wise this will end up being a squash in the favor of the Bludgeon Bros and not much will go into the match itself. On the other hand Zack vs Mojo should be a better match, but the entertainment from this match will be minimal because WWE dropped the ball on this feud and should have been done about 4 to 5 months ago. I’m going with Breezedango vs Bludgeon Bros simply because Luke is in this match.

Keri: I’m picking the Bludgeon Brothers vs. Breezedango for two reasons. One, so I can talk about the squealing jobber on Smackdown. That moment was too funny. I haven’t laughed that hard at something on WWE programing in a long time. I’ve cried or gotten angry but haven’t laughed. Second, so I can ask a question. What sort of sound do you think either Rowan or Harper is going to get out of Breezedango when the slam one of them on the mat. (Kent: Enjoy this bit.)

Kent: Keri brought up the squeal. That’s what I was hoping for from someone. Point to Keri.

As the SamiKO story progresses, I think it’s fair to say that there may be a face or heel turn along the way for one, or several of the players involved. This is a 3 part questions and they go hand in hand, but please answer them on their own. 1. What percent chance is there of Shinsuke turning heel here? 2. Will Shinsuke continue to stay on Shane’s side or will he switch to Daniel’s by the time Wrestlemania rolls around? 3. Finally, do you feel that this is WWE’s way of trying to keep Daniel Bryan once his contract is up?

Russ: And here we go. 1. I would say the percentage of Shinsuke turning is about 65%. There is money in Shinsuke vs AJ and I have a feeling that we will be seeing that soon. AJ needs a great opponent heading into Mania and Shinsuke would be awesome. WWE has teased this already and it went over well. Plus Shinsuke as a heel would be a lot of fun! The only reason I don’t make this higher is because Shinsuke can’t communicate well in english and heels need to be able to communicate well. 2. This is a tough one, but I say he sticks with Shane. Shinsuke needs a good mouthpiece if he is going to go heel and Shane is that guy. It feels like Shane has been heading toward a heel turn throughout all of this. While that doesn’t mean it will actually happen, it does make a lot of sense. Finally, Shane and Shinsuke think about it… both their names start with Sh. You know what else starts with S and H? Shiny! As in Shiny new title for Shinsuke! 3. 100% No, I think Bryan is a huge star with the WWE so WWE is trying to keep him front and center because he is a draw. Letting him wrestle will be their way of keeping Daniel when his contract is up.

Keri: Here are my answers in numerical order: 1. There is a 50/50 chance we get a heel turn out of Shinsuke here. And the reason I say this is one reason and one reason only he is the illogical variable here. He’s the person that was added to this feud that doesn’t really belong in the feud. Therefore, it would make sense that he would turn on Orton and join SamiKO. Will it happen? Probably not Creative is not that, well Creative. 2. He will switch to Bryan’s side. All of the NXT call-ups on Smackdown have been booked like crap. And you know what else they have in common, they are all former Indy guys. Bryan, Sami, KO, Nakamura, and I’m going to add Roode in here as well all came from the Indy scene and I’m really starting to like the idea of an Indy stable or faction. I see them joining up with Bryan as part of any internal conflict within the Smackdown Roster against Shane. 3. 100% yes. WWE knows that Bryan has been cleared by outside doctors to wrestle. They also know that he wants to wrestle and has Brie’s blessing to wrestle. They also know that ROH and NJPW are increasing in popularity with the hardcore fans right now and they can’t afford to lose Bryan to either promotion. Which means that they need to put him in a storyline that is interesting enough and also gives him a slight chance of wrestling again in order to make sure that he doesn’t jump ship. Because if they don’t, there is a very good chance Bryan may jump ship.

Kent: 1. I was going to award the point to whoever gave me the highest percentage. Point o Russ. 2. I think that the stable is happening, I already went in depth about it a few weeks ago for Survivor Series. With that being said, I don’t think Shinsuke is going to be part of that stable. I think AJ vs Shinsuke as a main event at Mania would satisfy all of us, no matter how bitter we are. I award Russ the point. 3. Looking at Keri’s response, I fear I have created a wrestling monster. I’m curious to see just how hard she can go. I’m awarding Keri 2 points because in the world of pro wrestling, the best heels are the ones that believe their own bullshit. They have rationalized their perspective. Keri is living the dream as the heel-ish smark. Keri wins because I don’t care and this gimmick of ours sucks. We’re going to try something new next week folks. We will figure this out…I hope.

Bonus Deuce

Rate RAW

Russ: Great matches again, intriguing stories, and Nia’s hair tell me that this week’s RAW once again delivered the goods. Sure there was some garbage and it did feel like a bit of a retread from last week, but it is still better than it has been. Rating: 6.3

Keri: It seems that this week’s RAW was the same as last week with slightly different matchups. Overall I would say average since it seems that nothing was really furthered and if I read last week’s results I would probably have a good idea of what happened this week. Rating: 5

Russ: Remember when WWE used to put on must see go home shows? Yea it seems like ages ago. Sigh… how do you leave Fashion Files off of TV the week before the PPV. Fashion Files is the best thing going for Smackdown and they put the match announcement and segment on Facebook? WTF WWE? Rating: 3

Keri: Another meh go home show. I rate it with a 3.5 (I’m adding a half point because of squealing guy).

Kent: Why do WWE go home shows suck such redonculous hairy nutsack? WHY? I don’t get it! I was bored with 2 exceptions. The tag team stuff and the SamiKO stuff. Props to Byron Saxton for trying to add something to his commentary. 3.7

Final Thoughts

Russ: The fact that there is a “Highway” to Hell and only a “Staircase” to Heaven says a lot about the anticipated traffic to each. Think about that instead of wrestling!

Keri: Check out my new segment on this week’s podcast, Keri’s Indy Corner. In this new segment I will take you through the fallout from this past Monday’s World Tag League final from Japan, my thoughts on the recent developments in the build for Wrestle Kingdom 12, and also my preview of this weekend’s ROH Final Battle. Also, speaking of WK12, we are three weeks away from the big show in the Tokyo Dome and three weeks away from Jericho vs. Omega (Sorry Naito and Okada fans but this is now your WK12 main event). As you all know, I was excited for this matchup when it was initially announced. And I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t say something about the events of earlier this week on the blog. The build for this match now has everything. What started as simple trash talking on twitter and a video challenge has now escalated very quickly. Now we have surprise appearances, blood, tables and chairs being thrown, and press conference brawls. This is how you should build a match. I just wish WWE was taking notes because this is really how it should be done (and I believe was at one point in time). January 4th cannot come fast enough for this fan.

Kent: We’re still trying to find a happy medium here for you readers. I’d rather just be upfront and say that I am fully aware that our answers are just blending together. That’s what happens when you sink yourself this deep into a fandom. I’m sure that it gets tiring reading Russell’s response, then reading Keri’s, and by the time you get to mine, you are wondering, why did I read the same thing twice and why is Kent saying that Russ stole his answers. You see, we are supposed to not read each other’s answers until we write our own. We have become so in sync mentally with what we want, you are getting similar responses. I know that is boring. Please have some patience as we try to redefine what a wrestling blog can be without the redundancy. We want this to be a place where you can get unique insight. We’re working on this.

This week and for the foreseeable future, we are trying a different format. We know that this blog gets very redundant. In an effort to ensure varying perspectives, one of us will be judging the other 2 people’s response. This week, that task fell on Kent. Let us know if this format works better or if it’s worse. We are never going to be complacent. We look forward to trying to be a fun, must read wrestling blog, so share your opinion. This week, we had a plethora of good matches including Sami vs Randy, Roman vs Jordan, The Shie vs Sheasaro, the second Cruiserweight 4 way, Rusev Day vs New Day, Paige vs Sasha, and even the Asuka vs Alicia match. We talked about this, plus much more on this week’s episode of Are You Not Kentertained which you can also subscribe to on iTunes.

The 9

Elias had a great showing last week. This week he gets mauled by Braun. Was this a good spot for Elias or a burial of sorts?

Russ: I’m ok with this. Elias getting beat down by Braun opens up a potential feud. Braun needs a good strong heel after he is done with whatever the fuck he is doing with Kane. Why not Elias (Or Why not Zoidberg)? This mauling plants the seed for that. I wouldn’t be surprised if after next week’s slow and plodding Kane match that Elias comes out and ambushes Braun. Elias would also benefit from a feud with Braun. He doesn’t have to win it, he just has to make Braun look great and come out of the match like he at least had a chance to win. That isn’t impossible to ask is it?

Keri: I don’t see how this is bad for Elias. He’s on the show and working with one of the top guys. Yes Braun is a top guy. Not THE top guy but one of the pseudo-top guys. I think WWE sees something in him if they are going to have him work with Braun. So, stop with the sky is falling theories. I don’t think we have to worry about them here.

Kent: Russ nailed it with the Zoidberg reference. I certainly enjoyed Keri’s assertive bashing of the sky is falling theories. Both of you made similar points, so no points awarded.

Absolution surround Asuka and she left again. Alexa Bliss left commentary again. Creative can’t be so devoid of ideas that they are already repeating themselves….can they?

Russ: Oi, a low light of the night. This was just a rinse and repeat from the other night. I get why they did it. They want to highlight and build tension. So they did the same thing two times in a row. Yea, WWE there are better ways to build tension. Perhaps Auska runs into Absolution in the back after her match and then do the stare down. Then have Alexa turn around and walk the other way when she sees the stare down. See same concept, different approach. You still get the same result, except my way is a little fresher.

Keri: Ok first, think about the group of individuals you are asking this question about. You are asking this question about WWE creative. The same group that has given us The Bar vs. 2/3rds of the Shield 5 million times in 4 different combinations are still trying to pass it off as new and exciting. Therefore, recycling last week’s women’s storyline should not be surprising. Honestly, why is anyone surprised by this? What is surprising to me is the lack of Alexa’s involvement in all of this? You would think Absolution would go after her first if they want to change the division. But then again, WWE creative is booking this so maybe not.

Kent: Russ presented solutions to the problem. Keri tore Creative a new one. I have to admit, I am an idea guy. I’m going to award Russ 2 points and Keri 1 point.

Is Bray Wyatt going to be forced to put over Fatt Hardy? What is the ceiling for the Awoken gimmick, as in titles or spot on the card?

Russ: I’m not sure he will put over “Woken” Fatt Hardy, but I think this will be a fun feud. Hell, we might see these two families join forces before it is all said and done. That is my hope anyway. I thought the dueling promos was well done or at the very least hilarious. Fatt Hardy is pretty funny when he is “Woken” his lines were fantastic, but I think the best line of the night belonged to Bray when he said “The ramblings of a mad man are dangerous.” Speaking from experience there Bray? I’m going to sit back and enjoy this feud.

Keri: Let’s sit back and remember what is important here. It isn’t who puts over whom (granted at the end of the day Matt should put over Bray) but how good the promo off is going to be between these two while this is happening. Seriously, we need to have what we had Monday night on RAW for the next few months. No, need to put them in a ring at all just give them a mic and let the crazy flow. Both got enough material to keep this going for a good long time and for it to remain interesting. Sorry Kent and Russ but this has the potential to be better than Sister Abigail and will do much more for Bray than crossdressing and facing Finn would have.

Kent: Well, if you don’t know what I am going to say, then let me welcome you, first time reader. While I feel that Russ is very over confident in thinking that this is going to continue strong for weeks or months. With that being said, there is No Chance in Hell that Keri was getting a point for suggesting that this feud has better potential than Bray as Sister Abigail. THAT is impossible. That was probably the single best feud of the year for me, and then mumps. So no, Fatt Hardy is not going to be better than Sister Abigail. Keri is deserving the walk of shame. I award Russ one point while feeling great sadness and disappointment.

Are we finally done with the Sheasaro vs The Shie? The l and d are silent because they are only ⅔ of the Shield.

Russ: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAA…. Are we done with Sheasaro vs The Shie… HAHAHHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHA, who writes these questions, because you sir are a comedic genius! To answer the question. No we are not done seeing this. I’m not sure what happened to the tag team division on RAW, but it sure has turned into a two team division (teams, I might add, that are full of individual stars.) The other teams don’t even get featured so there is no real competition. RAW needs to work on building up their tag division before we see a departure from Shesaro and The Shie. HAHA, man, what a good laugh.

Keri: Are you kidding me? We only have two tag teams in the division. If they can’t wrestle each other in various combinations of match ups, who are the going to wrestle? You want us to keep them off TV? I mean that is what you are suggesting right. That was me speaking as Creative. Now I shall say something to Creative. Creative, Gallows and Anderson say hello from catering. Seriously, that is where one of the best tag teams on the planet is right now. They are in catering. Let’s all let that sink in for a second shall we?

Kent: So it should be said that Gallows and Anderson fought Ginger Rhynos….on Main Event. I should also say that 3 matches have been confirmed for RAW. Roman vs Cesaro, Joe vs Dean, and you guessed it, Seth vs Sheamus. While I liked Russ’ point about these 2 teams both being made up of singles stars, I gotta agree even more with Keri’s assertion that G&A are easily one of the 10 best current tag teams, and it’s probably closer to top 5. Russ gets a point for calling me a comedic genius. Keri gets 2 because she trashed Creative and sang the praises of the Good Brothers.

The best match of the night was________?

Russ: This is tough. There were Four high quality matches to choose from. Jason Jordan vs Roman, The Cruiserweight Fatal 4 way, Sasha vs Paige and The Tag Team Championship match. You can at least say this was a good night of wrestling. Out of those four deserving matches I’m going to call the Fatal 4 way the best match of the night. These guys worked their ass’s off and it showed in the ring. This match felt more like a cruiserweight match than almost every other WWE cruiserweight match in the past few months. They had their high flying spots, some great near falls, and great spots that were left off our television screen because of stupid ass commercials. All in all it was a great night of wrestling.

Keri: My vote is Jordan vs Roman. Both guys put in the work and put on a really good match. Some of those spots and near falls you didn’t see coming. Oh come on, you didn’t see Jordan catching Roman mid air coming and throwing him down and you know it. It was a damn good match. And good on Jordan for finally getting a crowd reaction. On the crowd heat scale, I would say he’s a solid Eva Marie right now.

Kent: Well, obviously the point has to go to whoever picked what match I thought was the best, and I think that Cruiserweight match was really, really good. It had a lot of different styles. The pacing was solid, and the right guy won. I would say that Roman and Jordan was very good as well. Russ gets one point. Keri, on an unrelated note, the timing of you mentioning Eva Marie is very funny as Russ will find out this Saturday at LingFest. Pics will be sent.

Why did WWE add Dolph ZIggler to the US Championship match at Clash of Champions?

Russ: After watching last night’s Smackdown the only conclusion to adding Dolph is that they want to showcase another Reinvention of Dolph. I swear he has more gimmicks than Mick Foley, just not nearly as memorable. I’m ok with them adding him to the match. Baron, Bobby, and Dolph should be able to give us a memorable triple threat match that will help elevate Baron and Bobby. Baron doesn’t really need the rub, but a good match as a champion won’t hurt him. Bobby on the other hand desperately needs a good match and fued. Besides all of this, I have been hankering for an excellent triple threat match. It seems like we haven’t had many this year.

Keri: I’m still scratching my head on this one. Do they have that little faith that Corbin and Roode can put on a good match? That can be the only reason why you would add Ziggler to this match, right? Because if it’s not that then I don’t know the reason why. It’s not like there is a storyline to back it up or anything.

Kent: Russ isn’t wrong, but I think that Keri’s point is the most realistic. I’m wondering if Baron and Bobby have worked house shows and perhaps stunk up the joint. On the Are You Not Kentertained podcast, we have been trying to figure out if their chemistry would work. That is my best guess. There’s a great recent interview with Dolph that came out this week that I found fascinating. While I think this will be among the best, if not the best triple threat of the year for WWE, the competition isn’t very good for that distinction. Keri gets the point here.

Rusev Day has been added to the Tag Team Championship match at Clash of Champions. What percent chance do the Uso’s have of retaining their titles in your opinion?

Russ: Well, I’m no mathematician… I just play one at a school, but I would say it is a 25% success rate. Oh, you don’t want actual stats, you want WWE stats. Let’s look at the competition to determine this percentage. Rusev Day: As much as I love them and this gimmick they have about 8% chance of winning this thing and a 92% chance of taking the pin. The New Day: They just lost the belts and out of all the teams need the belts the least so I give them a 27% chance of winning (What can I say WWE has no problem putting the belts back on these guys.) American Beta: Out of all the teams here I feel they have the most potential to gain from a win here so I give them a 35% chance of winning. That leaves the Uso’s with a 30% chance of winning this thing. Which makes sense. A win here would help solidify them as one of the best tag teams in WWE history.

Keri: First, let me start off by saying that I was told there would be no math when I started writing on this blog. Yet here we are. So, let’s see if we think through this logically and mathematically. There are four teams and each technically have a equal chance of winning which means that they have a one out of four chance of retaining the title. So my answer is slightly over 25%. I’m saying slightly cuz you have to factor in the Creative laziness factor. Also, it’s Ruuuuusev Daaaaaay! Sorry had to get that out of my system.

Kent: My apologies to Keri. She is right, when we negotiated her contract to do this blog and podcast, she did ask if math would be involved and I told her that there wouldn’t be. My bad. Still, Russ used the number 92 at one point and gave me reasonable odds. I think Rusev Day are going to get the belts here. Call it a hunch. Russ gets the point here.

A year from now, which member of the Riott Squad will be the best on the mic?

Russ: I’m going to say Ruby. She already seems very smooth and relaxed on the mic. She just needs to get some charisma and inflection. That will come with practice. The other two… I don’t know their names and I’m too lazy to look them up… weren’t bad to be honest. The one with the Southern Drawl messed up her lines a bit and visibly got flustered, but her second try came off a little better. I just want to know what the hell is a Pay-Pa?

Keri: My choice is Ruby. She really impressed me on Smackdown this week. She appears to be stronger on the mic than I thought she would be. And given time she will probably get stronger.

Kent: While neither of you gave the answer I was looking for, Keri has to get this by default. Russ talked about Sarah Logan and was too lazy to look up her name. We are professionals, so Keri gets the professional point. I think that Sarah Logan is going to be really good on the mic.

This is potentially the question that wins you the week. 1. Is the SamiKO story the best story being told in WWE? 2. Was Sami vs KO the best match of the week for WWE? (Kent: I meant to type RKO and instead it came out to KO. I am deducting a point from myself.) 3. Randy Orton appears to be performing well again after a lull in the spring and summer. Is Randy Orton the most consistently inconsistent performer on the main roster, in your opinion?

Russ: Alright, let’s do this! 1. I do love this story and it is one of the best stories being told right now, but I’ll be honest here I love what they are doing with Jason, Roman and Joe. I’m still trying to figure out just what the hell Jason is. Is he a face, a heel, a challenge everyone type of guy. I’m intrigued. SamiKO story is great as well. They are actually telling a fantastic story. Shane is clearly out to get these guys. SamiKO are spot on with their criticism and yet are such dicks that it doesn’t matter. I also like that Daniel is right in the middle of all this. You know what I changed my mind this is the best story being done in WWE. As I was writing this down I literally changed my mind and I’m too lazy to go back and erase what I already wrote. 2. Is this a joke? When did Sami face KO this week? I missed that. What I did see was Sami vs Randy in a very good match. The dynamic was well played. Still I’m going to say that the fatal 4 way for the cruiserweight division was the best match of the week. 3. This is the reason I have never been a huge fan of Randy’s. One week he is great and lots of fun to watch. The next he is boring and doesn’t seem to care. I can’t stand that in him.

Keri: I’m going to keep this simple. 1. Possibly but not for the reason you think. 2. No. 3. Possibly. Now on to why I think SamiKO is the best story. So, as some of you may know (or may not know), I’m a huge Star Wars fan and I saw a meme Wednesday morning that got me thinking about the Shane and Daniel aspect of this storyline. Essentially right now, we have an Emperor and Darth Vader situation brewing here. Daniel is Vader right before he realizes that the Emperor is going to kill Luke in that one scene in Jedi. Daniel is starting to have this same realization about Shane and SamiKO. My question is how long will we have to wait before Darth Bryan picks up and throws Emperor McMahon into a hole while he electrocutes himself?

Kent: At the moment, Russ is up 6 to 5 on the points. Needless to say, I really had to read into everything that they wrote. For their first answers, Russ babbled on and Keri gave us a slice of Star Wars. I would have likened it to a different film that is incredible, Training Day and the dynamic between Denzel and Ethan Hawke, but Star Wars is more well known. Keri get the point for that. I’m not awarding either of you points for the 2nd question because Russ made fun of my typo, and Keri totally phoned it in. So it comes down to #3. Keri gave me the indecisive female answer of possibly. Russ gave me a definitive answer. Honestly, I have no choice here. Russ gets the winning point. Russ wins this week.

Bonus Deuce

Rate RAW

Russ: This was a fantastic RAW. The first hour was spent on great matches and advancing storylines. Jordan is becoming one of the best heels in recent memory through sheer annoyances. WWE is playing to his strengths and it is working. Four main matches that delivered and decent storytelling has made this one of the best RAW’s this year. Rating: 7.5

Keri: It was a good RAW. I actually felt bad going bed after hour one and a half when I read the recap this morning. But at least before I went to bed, I got to see two solid matches. I missed the debut of Woken (don’t call him Broken) Matt Hardy but luckily the internet provides me with recap videos that I can watch and now I’m good. Rating: 6.5

Kent: This was one of the 5 best RAWS of the year for me. 4 solid matches, logical storytelling, and the dueling promo. It does get hurt by the redundancy of Absolution so early in their run. 7.2

Rate Smackdown

Russ: It was a good show. SamiKO / Shane / Daniel story is the best thing going in WWE. No Fashion Files, which is fine because we gotta let the whole Ascension death settle in our heads. Decent matches throughout left me moderately satisfied. Rating: 5.8

Keri: Decent show with ok matches. I always feel like something is lacking on Smackdown. Probably because I remember the good times when the show was awesome and worth watching. Sigh. Those were good times. Great now I’m sad. Rating: 4.5 (I’m deducting a half point cuz now I have a sad).

Kent: It was better than it has been lately, but it is still missing one or two things to really help it stand out, in my opinion. It’s a lack of great matches, that’s a definite. Sure, one match a week is fine, but Smackdown used to be the bar. Now they are The Descension. 4.9

Keri: Is this abs week? It sounds like this is abs week. And if it is then no discussion of abs is complete without including Finn “at least my abs are over according to WWE” Balor in that discussion. Sorry Russ but even Finn outranks Neese, according to WWE, in the abs department. Seriously there was a WWE slideshow last week that I encourage everyone who likes abs to take a look at. And with that said, let me close out by saying abs.

Kent: I apparently missed the memo about abs week. I am absolutely morally deflated. I may have to pour me a glass of Absolute Vodka. Hopefully that will absolve me of not seeing the ABSformentioned memo. OK, I apologize for that last one.

Other noteworthy ABS include:

Always Be Shooting in video games

Antilock Brake System

Access your feelings, Be apologetic, and Slap It (as in a high five) – per Mr Frond on Bob’s Burgers

Unfortunately for Kent, we didn’t get our PMS. What we did find was some Absolution. We also found out that we are all dead, and the Ascension are poisoned. The Hype Bros are no more, Dean is on his honeymoon, and adding a T to the end of Riott makes all of the difference when it comes to marketing. We talked about this, plus much more on this week’s episode of Are You Not Kentertained which you can also subscribe to on iTunes.

The 9

Paige’s group is called Absolution. They attacked Mickie, Bayley, and Sasha. They were too scurred to attack Asuka after her ridiculously long match with Dana. Also, Alexa ran away from commentary. Did all of this work for you or do you have gripes?

Russ: For this blog I’m going to try and make compliment sandwiches. Why you ask? Because I want to try something gimmicky, geez get off my back! For those of you who don’t know what a compliment sandwich is let me enlighten you. It is a way to mask criticism by starting with something positive, then diving into the criticism and finally ending with another positive aspect. What I’m saying is there was a lot to criticise this week and I’m trying to stay positive! Here we go! First, a compliment: I like the name Absolution it has a good ring to it. It’s no PMS ™ but once Kent verbally trademarked the name last week WWE had to go another direction and they did a good job. Ok the meat of the sandwich the gripe: Can WWE please come up with an original story for once in their damn lives. Every heel female for the past year has claimed to start the women’s revolution, and dammit they are pissed for not getting the credit they deserve. While Paige might have more claims to this argument than some of the others the story has already been done and it’s time for a new one. Gripe 2: Why did Absolution come out after Asuka’s match. I get it, we all want to see Paige vs Asuka (a ways down the line, like 2019 Wrestlemania, so Asuka can have the undefeated streak for a good amount of time only to have Paige be the one to take it away from her.) but this served no point only to show that Absolution is afraid of Asuka. Finally, The last compliment: Paige is still the best looking pasty white girl in the WWE.

Keri: Let me start out by saying that this Absolution storyline is the most exciting thing the E has done in awhile. I’m so glad Paige is back. With that said, still not sure where this is heading. I’m not complaining though. Paige is being set up right now to own this division and possibly Asuka. I don’t think they looked weak not going after Asuka this week. I think they are going to play with her for awhile and that is fine. We complain that the E has a tendency to rush things but want them to rush this storyline. You can’t have it both ways everyone. (Kent: Hey, no bringing logic into a wrestling blog. We’re going to lose our smark cred.)

Kent: I do have one gripe….sorry, typical Kent behavior, I know. Why come out after Asuka’s match if you aren’t going to attack? It makes the group look weak. 3 fresh fighters should be able to take out 1, no matter how good they are, unless it’s like Bruce Lee. I get that they want to keep Asuka looking strong, and that’s fine. You have 2 options. 1. Just don’t have Absolution come out for Asuka….it’s that simple. 2. Have Asuka get her ass kicked in a 3 on 1 to get the fans riled up. Asuka will not look weak in this scenario, whatsoever. I liked everything else, except Sonya Blackman on the mic. I have a feeling that she is going to be my new whipping girl.

Seth Rollins: he had a great match with Cesaro on RAW and an absolutely dreadful post match interview. Praise, Mock, Discuss

Russ: Compliment: This was a great match. Both guys gave us one hell of a show. I just wish the match didn’t get interrupted by commercials. I was very Kentertained. Ok Complaint: Stop Interviewing people immediately after a match! He was clearly winded and made it hard to listen to him. Also, I have no idea what the hell he was talking about when it came to Dean. This was bad. Compliment: Seth has nice facial hair.

Keri: The match was good with some really good spots. But why does it seem like WWE matches are so slow to me. It just looked like both guys were going through the motions of putting on a good match. There were points like that was cool but why are you taking so long to get to the next sequence. In short it was good but too slow. As for that post match promo, that was just awful. They should really stop that.

Kent: This was the best singles match that Seth has had since his return from injury, I think. I am happy for him. I also don’t blame him for having a horrendous promo, but it happened, and I gotsta bitch. Please, stop with promos after a match. The performers are too winded and the promo really comes off terribly. On top of that, the promo that they gave him, even under normal circumstances would have bombed. Like, this was a really bad promo. One of the worst that he’s cut in WWE, possibly his worse. So, as Dickens would say, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. A Tale of Two Kitties, I mean Cities, bitches.

Was Titus’ match a good showing for Titus, or more of the same, or even bad?

Russ: Ok, this one might be tough, but here it goes. Compliment: I thought Titus had one of his better matches in recent memory, possibly his best singles match. Compliant: Even though this was one of his best matches this was one of the worst for Joe. I’m not sure what happened here, but these two felt out of sync to me. Compliment: Titus is trying to woo Dana Brooke that can’t end badly for anyone involved.

Keri: From what I was able to watch in the recap, it looked like a decent match. I honestly liked it better when Titus was managing people and trying to get them to join Titus Worldwide though.

Kent: I felt that it was a tad clunky at times, but this was the best I have seen Titus in ring in a long while, so I am going to say it was a good showing. Joe gave him more offense than I anticipated, and I feel that Titus could feud with somebody right now, and I could be interested. Or just feud him and Apollo with the Good Brothers.

Would you rather Roman have a feud with Samoa Joe or Elias?

Russ: This will be tough to answer with a compliment sandwich, but I will do my best. Compliment: Roman vs Elias was a really good match. I’m very impressed with how Elias has progressed since his call up. He is a definite star and it is only a matter of time before he will be the IC champion. Complaint: Why does it have to be a feud between just one of them. Why can’t they both be involved. I could see a nice triple threat match at Royal Rumble (I think the next PPV for RAW is the Royal Rumble.) They could tear the house down. Complement: If it is going to be Joe I think that we are in for a good time. If they can tell the right story between these two and then let them have at it in the ring. We could be very Kentertained.

Keri: I’m torn here because I know what a feud with Roman potentially means for whoever he is feuding with at the time. I’m not saying he has taken Cena’s golden shovel yet but Creative is starting to book him that way. Look at the match that Elias put on with him on RAW. Elias looked damn good in that match but in the end it was AA, I mean, spear 1-2-3 and a Roman win. I know what you are saying Keri did you really expect Roman to drop the belt a week after winning it? No I didn’t and that’s not what I’m sayin at all. We are starting to see the Cenaifcation of Roman. He looks beatable until the very end and then you are left crushed like Rusev on a tank but he still loses crushed. Will a long term feud help or hurt Eilas though? It may help if at some point he is put over but I say not just yet. Elias proved that he can hang with the top guys let’s not rush his ascension. As for Joe, I’m ok with him and Roman feuding. We all know this IC title thing is only temporary for Roman anyways and we all know he will drop the belt before Mania so he can take the title off of Brock. Why not make Joe the measuring stick for the IC title and then let Elias chase it?

Kent: I honestly want a Joe vs Braun feud at some point. Samoan on Samoan violence is cool with me. I want this feud, but I really want it to be good and have value. I fear that it may not have much value this time of year. On top of that, Elias just put on a match that proved me right in backing this guy. This was a proud Kent moment, no doubt. Elias looked like a star tonight. I have a gripe though. I’m like Bad News Barrett with my gripes. Roman needs to stop with his Dolph shit, meaning that he has to hit his finishers too many times to get the win I feel. Give Roman a finisher that he wins with. With his strength and size, I would be cool with a delayed standing brainbuster. Another idea would be some kind of brutal looking gutbuster that plays off of the set up that the spear provides. Maybe like pick your opponent up like you would for a fallaway slam, and then have Roman fall on his back lifting his knees up into the opponent’s midsection. Also, I am putting my reputation on the line right now. When they mix up the roster again, Samoa Joe is going to Smackdown.

Is Broken Matt about to become a thing, or is this a bait and switch on WWE’s part? Also, are we all dead?

Russ: Compliment: Goes out to me for waiting to write this blog until the last minute. Why is that a compliment you ask? Well since I waited several stories have broke to the public. First, Matt is now allowed to use the Broken personality. So it seems we will definitely get some version of the Broken Matt. Complaint: It would be really asinine of WWE to use the Broken gimmick now. They missed their opportunity to work it to it’s full effect about 3 months ago. This may come off as stupid. Compliment: I do like how they are mixing Bray into this. They desperately need to get Bray back into a good story. I feel we missed a great story in Sister Abigail and that it is something we will never see materialize. So instead of rehashing the Broken gimmick completely maybe they will do some kind of hybrid with The Wyatt Family! That would be very enjoyable.

Keri: I don’t know about the whole are we dead thing. Perhaps, who knows really? It’s an interesting idea to ponder. As for Broken Matt, maybe they did finally get the rights to the gimmick so maybe it will become a thing. If that is the case then the real question is how will Creative screw this up?

Kent: I truly feel damned no matter which way I go here. Bait and switch seems likely with a similar gimmick, but not the Broken tag line. I am happy that Bray is on my TV again, but I fear that I may never get to see Sister Abigail. Are we all dead? Yes, we die a bit every week on the inside when our abusive lover, WWE, beats us. So Bray is right.

The Hype Bros are no more. 1. Do you think Mojo was the right choice to be the heel in this breaking bromance? (I feel so dirty that I just used that word.) 2. Tag teams that have been called up from NXT have not fared well. Every team, aside from the Revival have split up since the call up to the main roster. Will The Revival buck the trend, or should be concerned?

Russ: Compliment: I think Mojo was the right choice here. He is decent in the ring and he is very charismatic. If he can work his mic skills a bit and turn his Hypeness into intensity then we might just have something here. Complaint: I don’t think The Revival is going to make it. Everything has gone against them since they were called up. The injuries are a bad sign. I don’t want to say that because honestly The Revival is one of the best tag teams to exist and they have done nothing on the main roster. I hope I’m wrong, but we will see when they come back. Compliment: The Revival are seriously a great tag team. So I hope when they return they go right back to being the big time players we all know they should be.

Keri: On Mojo’s heel turn, I can’t see a heel Zack Ryder to be honest. So, it kinda had to be Mojo, didn’t it? As for the fate of the Revival, who knows. If Creative wants to break them up, they will. Sorry, Kent.

Kent: 1. A lot of times, you look for 3 qualities for the heel when breaking up a tag team. Who is the bigger dude, who is better on the mic, and who can control a match better. Aside from the first part, I feel that Zack actually checks the last 2 boxes better, plus he has that beard and has a better body. I think Zack would have gotten better fan response as well/ Still, Mojo is the younger guy and this is a make or break time for him. If he is still struggling next year around this time, he will be future endeavored. Zack is a great company guy who could very well be a lifer. 2. If Dash were to get injured again, I could see Dawson break up and become the next AA (Arn ANderson) to somebody’s Flair. Still, I am guessing that they avoid this trend.

The Riot Squad…..seriously RAW gets Absolution, and Smackdown gets the Riot Squad. Give me your thoughts on the women’s segment. Also, which group between Riot Squad and Absolution will have more long term stars (5 years or more career)?

Russ: Compliment: Ruby Riott (the extra t is for terrific!) and the Riott Squad did a great job of picking apart Charlotte, Natty, and The Glowing One. I mean any time I get to see Charlotte taken behind the woodshed is good with me. I just have one major… Complaint: The Riott Squad is like the B version of Absolution. They are almost an exact copy. Both teams had a 3 on 3 match for their respective nights. Both teams dismantled the other team before the match really got going. Both teams beat up the biggest star of the other team individually at the end. Both teams are led by relatively hot pasty white chicks. The only real difference is that Absolution has a bonafide star in Paige and that’s what makes them the “B” team. Which I guess is apropo because Smackdown is the “B” show. Compliment: I really like Ruby and Paige and I think they are both stars so both teams at least have one person coming out in the long run. As for the other four. I’ll be honest, I don’t know anything about them and none of them really impressed me. So I will wait and see.

Keri: Good overall match and Charlotte actually took the pin. Poor Naomi, she definitely got the worst out of everything that happened in that match. As for the name, it’s ok, I guess. Neither name is very creative if you ask me. As for future stars, you have to take Paige out of the equation. She’s already a star. I’m going to go with all three member of the Riot Squad. Each girl has her strong points so I think they could do very well. As for the other two, I haven’t seen enough of them to make an educated opinion.

Kent: I have so many things to say. First of all, both girl groups have the pasty white chick. Check. The athletic blonde chick. Check. The badass brunette. Check. Like, it’s like they didn’t even try. And Smackdown should be the true A show. I don’t think any of these girls are above an A Cup. Can we rename them the A Team? I’m gonna, just to let you know. It’s now PMS and the A Team moving forward. I also hate WWE for basically forcing me to watch a match with Charlotte. Fuck you WWE. I took a shower immediately after. As for which group has the better long term, I think I gotta go with the A Team for a multitude of reasons. 1. Paige is unstable, and could jeopardize her career at any point, so 5 years is risky, but she is the most talented, and best looking from my perspective. Fuck tans! 2. While I think Mandy is going to have a Bella like career, she needs to find a top star to start sleeping with to ensure she follows in their footsteps. 3. I don’t thinK Sonya is that good. 4. Ruby should have a job for 5-8 years, she strikes me as a good person to work with and is unique. 5. Sarah Logan smiles too much and that is a big no no. She needs to get serious about being a heel or become a face. I think she is the second best wrestler out of the 6. I believe in Liv, and I fear I am going to regret it. The girl should be able to become a star, but she need to talk to Carmella and Alexa.

Russ: Compliment: This was a very brutal and intense match. Both guys really took it to the other especially with the Kendo Sticks. Complaint: How can you have a No DQ match and have someone Banned from Ringside? That is just stupid. Seriously what are they going to do to KO DQ him…oh wait…See the logical fallacy there? My other problem with this match was the fact that after 5 minutes I completely forgot who won the match. That isn’t good. Compliment: I really liked Randy with his hair just grown out. He actually looked younger and more vibrant. He should keep it this length and style at all times!

Keri: First off, Randy doesn’t look right. He’s growing back his hair to look like 20 something Orton and it’s not working for him. As for the match, it was ok but nothing special really. Also why did this match also feel slow to me? All of the matches this week felt like everyone was going through the motions. Maybe it’s just me.

Kent: This match was a giant oxymoron. How do you have a ban somebody from ringside while making it a No DQ? They don’t go hand in hand. Still, I do believe in my True Men of Honor stable, and Daniel is playing this incredibly well. I think this is actually the storyline to watch in WWE. This has long burn potential.

Are the Ascension dead…or at the very least poisoned? Are Breezedango and the Ascension still friends? Who is the person behind the mask?

Russ: Compliment: This was by far one of the best Fashion Files we have had in months. So many great lines. I also loved how Breezedango completely left the Ascension to die. The sight gag of Detective Dango coming back for something and leaving again was fantastic. Complaint: How are they going to resolve this… I mean you can’t kill the Ascension that wouldn’t be fun. I think they should just have them back the next week like nothing happened. That would just be fantastic. Compliment: This is how the Fashion Files should be done every time. I don’t mind missing a week or two if it means the quality is better.

Keri: I’ve never seen any of the Saw movies nor am I a big horror movie girl so I didn’t get what was happening. (Kent: Boooooo Keri BOOOOOOOOOOO) With that said, I really want Breezedango and the Ascension to be friends. So, I hope they are still friends and the Ascension is still alive. As for the person behind the mask, no clue.

Kent: To be upfront here, I have a Jigsaw tattoo, and I am bound by law to have loved this segment. Why it didn’t happen last month is truly beyond me. Yes, the Ascension are poisoned, yes they are dead, if we are to believe Bray Wyatt, and no it shouldn’t affect them as they live in the Wasteland. Of course they are still friends! I truly hope that it’s Arn Anderson behind the mask. I got to mention Arn twice in one blog, I feel good.

Russ: Compliment: The matches were great. Complaint: The stories are terrible. Also, another complaint: Kane is too old to be the monster anymore. However, he is still perfect for Corporate Kane. Bring that back. Compliment: I like where this Jason Jordan story is going I want to see where it’s going. Rating: 5.6

Keri: This week’s RAW was ok. It was kinda standard actually. As for Kane’s matches, I don’t care. Rating: 4

Kent: Really, the only thing I fast forwarded through was the cruiserweight match. They started some new feuds. I felt Titus and Elias elevated themselves a bit. I actually enjoyed this edition of RAW. Plus, as Twan pointed out to me, we got to see Fit Finlay. Rating is a 5.9.

Rate Smackdown

Russ: Compliment: Fashion Files was fantastic. Complaint: This was a very forgettable show. I mean I forgot who won the Main Event 5 minutes after it occurred! That isn’t good. Compliment: …. ummm….It was watchable. That’s a compliment right? Rating: 4.2 (a lot of these points go to Fashion Files.)

Keri: For the first time ever, I did an eye roll when Shane’s music hit to kick off Smackdown. That reaction from me is usually reserved for his sister. Good job Shane you are not at the same level as Stephanie for me. With that said, Smackdown was ok, I guess. Rating: 3

Kent: They are moving forward with some decent stuff here. Baron vs Bobby, AJ vs Jinder, KO, Sami, and Daniel vs Shane and the blue boy, and the women. I don’t get why American Omega lost though. I am very confused because they were having good matches. I am curious who the next victims will be of the Bludgeon Bros. The show went by fast, so that is a plus. I am at a 5 on the rating.

Final Thoughts

Russ: Compliment: Ok, so I did a whole review with Compliment Sandwiches and I didn’t want to kill myself. Complaint: It took me way too long to come up with things and write them down. If I ever do this again I will definitely have to work on that. Compliment: It’s over for one more week! That’s a compliment right?

Keri: I’ve started to watch weekly ROH episodes and I find them fun. So I’m adding to my weekly countdown. Two weeks to Final Battle and 5 until WK12.

Kent: The Punisher is really fucking good on NetFlix. Go watch it. Here’s some pics of current stars back in NXT. Yeah, Roman was in shape at one point in his career.

Survivor Series came and went, and it wasn’t terrible, some matches were actually enjoyable. Then we had Paige return on RAW, and then we got 2 girls from NXT with her. Not to be outdone, over on Smackdown they brought up Ruby Riot and 2 other ladies. So yeah, the estrogen is flowing this week. I hope I never say the estrogen is flowing this week ever again. We talked about this, plus much more on this week’s episode of Are You Not Kentertained which you can also subscribe to on iTunes.

The 9

Finally, Paige has returned, and she brought along Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville from NXT. Do you like Paige having a posse, and did you like that they also attacked Alexa Bliss backstage?

Russ: It took a long ass time, but finally Paige is back. I really liked how she returned, putting the entire RAW women’s roster (minus Asuka, because that won’t work with her character.) on notice. I know nothing of Mandy or Sonya, but this was a nice introduction of them to the main roster. I think PMS ™ is a good name, especially the way they acted last night. I don’t like that they attacked Alexa, but I’ll give Alexa major credit. She took that beating like a champ and really sold it. It has been a long time, but finally the women’s division is finally picking up at least on RAW.

Keri: So, everyone I think I know what has been bothering me for the past year other than bad WWE booking, it was the lack of Paige on my screen. Well that ended on RAW this week. Paige is back and I couldn’t be happier. Told you all I missed her. Anyways for this segment, I like the idea of this new SHEild. I don’t know much about either girl but they seemed to be ok. So, I like them now. And what I suspect is Mandy’s finisher is pretty impressive. I was not expecting that from her. As for the backstage segment with Bliss, if this group really is the SHEild then they need to beat up everyone. They need to look dominate. My only question is will they go after Asuka next?

Kent: Now, before either of these 2 try to steal it, the initials are PMS and I trademarked this and I have visual proof of this at 10:01 PM, so no stealing my fucking thunder! I love Paige’s in ring talent and she is capable of having a great wrestling personality, and she deserves way more credit than the 4 Whoreswomen for the women’s revolution, along with Emma and AJ Lee. I do hate her screaming, unless it is some type of film that I may watch in private. I’ll allow the others to go on about this segment, while I bring the truth. I have seen Mandy Rose and SOnya Deville down at NXT. Mandy is a nice girl to look at and has a real bitchy attitude character, that is basically a poor woman’s Alexa. She is nothing special yet, but has potential. She was in the last season of Tough Enough, along with the Velveteen Dream. Neither of them won, and the 3 finalists have all been released from their contracts. Don’t ever lt fans vote again WWE. As for Sonya, she is blandness personified. If you can Steve Blackman’s rookie year, mixed with Trent Barreta, Glacier, and Marc Mero, well you have already tuned out. Yet, she had to get a name change in NXT to Sonya Deville. Her original name sucked as well. My point is that neither were really remotely decent in NXT. I think that this is a huge mistake. They should have brought up Peyton Royce and Billie Kay because they are main roster ready and their Aussies so the whole foreign thing would work for the trio. Sonya is not a long term keeper. Mandy may be due to her looks, and she has potential to develop.

It’s still very early in the Jason Jordan saga. When all is said and done, do you think that he will become a star?

Russ: I hope so. Jason can go in the ring to the point of at least holding decent matches. He is terrible on the mic, but that can be worked around by giving him a mouth piece or just more practice. So he has the potential. They finally have him in an interesting angle with Kurt, HHH, and Braun, but I’m not holding my breath for him to come out of this looking good. In the end I think Jason will come out of this worse for wear and he’ll either go back into obscurity or maybe he can get a new tag partner.

Keri: No. No . Absolutely not. Bad booking has killed Jason Jordan as a singles wrestler for me. He’s not good on the mic, lacks charisma, yet is decent in the ring. One out of the three major criteria for a star do not a star make. Sorry but I don’t foresee him being a star no matter how Creative tries to salvage this experiment.

Kent: He is good in the ring, but he is terrible on the mic. SO was the Rock early on. The thing is, I haven’t seen Jason improve in over 2 years. He may grow to be acceptable on the mic, but I don’t think that he is ever going to be a star. I hope that I am wrong, but he is so bland, so so soooo bland. I am going to say no and hope to be wrong. He’s got a lot of Billy Gunn in him.

Samoa Joe beat Finn clearly. Does this mean that we’re due a 3 month feud where Finn wins the rest of the matches because he wears body paint? Also, where the hell was Bray?

Russ: I think in the end Finn will win this feud with makeup on. Up to that point it might be a bit lopsided in Joe’s favor. I don’t mind that because these two are good in the ring together. There is a slight fear that we may get these two put into a tag team together, because all of the good talent that they don’t want to feature becomes a tag team. As for Bray. I think I have a solution for this feud and Bray. So when Finn finally goes all demon vs Joe in their final battle to claim supremacy we will have a heck of a match. At the end though as Finn is about to claim victory the lights will go out. We will hear a woman’s laughter. The lights will come back on and in the ring will be a mysterious woman. She will attack Finn, while the ref is distracted of course, Joe will take advantage and get the pin. After we get a close up on the woman and see that it is none other than Sister Abigail. We will have to wait 3 months to finally get Bray back, but that is par for the course in WWE.

Keri: I don’t know where they are going with this Finn (and his abs) and Joe storyline but I’m ok with it. Why you ask? Because both guys can put on a good show. They did in NXT and they can do it here. Yes, after about two months, this feud is going to get boring but at least the matches will be good. As for Bray, maybe he is sick again. Or maybe we can get a Wyatt family reunion with a woman added and they can feud with Sanity. I can’t be the only one that wants to see that happen, am I?

Kent: Seriously, you bring Bray back last week to job to Jason and now nothing this week? WHat the fuck? Bring back Sister Abigail or else we’re gonna riot. As for Joe and Finn, Joe is the better wrestler and character overall. This felt like they did something right. Needless to say, I am very worried about Joe’s next 2-3 months.

Roman Reigns beat Miz for the IC title. This is a safe space to share your feelings on this, so let em rip.

Russ: Well, Roman has done it. For better or worse he is a Grand Slam Champion now. I don’t quite understand why he needed to have a belt now when he is destined to win the Universal Championship at Wrestlemania, but whatever I’m not WWE creative. I will say this the fans have really taken to Roman finally. I remember when he would get booed out of the arena just for sneezing. WWE has done a very good job of getting the fans to cheer him the past two months. I’ll give Roman credit too. He puts in the work in the ring and the majority of his matches are well done so that helps as well. Still I think this might be good for The Miz. He has held the belt for a long time and became kind of stagnant. I hope this will turn into a major opportunity for him. He truly deserves it with all the work he has put in this past year and a half.

Keri: Sigh. That is all. I’m not going to say another word about it. Ok maybe a few more. I’m still trying to figure out what makes this guy worth all the hype. Other than his look and his decent in ring ability. In my opinion, he’s overrated. Yet, my colleagues would say my choice of favorite wrestler is the same thing. But at least he’s got charisma and is good in the ring and on the mic. Can Roman say the same? Well, can he? Sorry all but Roman just doesn’t do it for me regardless of how they book him or how many titles they give him. (Kent: I can’t debate the merits of Roman vs Omega because I have not seen enough of Omega to provide a fair assessment. In my opinion, both are wildly overrated by the 2 extreme groups. In this moment, I would say that smarks overrate Omega and Casuals overrate Roman. As always, the truth is somewhere in the middle and both are doing their job for their respective promotion, whether we like it or not. Both guys can go in the ring, but I am not a fan of how either is pushed with their ridiculous amounts of kick outs. I do believe that Roman has wetter hair than Kenny. This is one of those things where most likely you don’t like both, you like one and dislike the other, and that’s fine. That’s how I make peace with it and it’s also how I learn to not talk to many people about wrestling because they get too passionate and won’t let shit go. Wrestling makes people act like damn fools, myself included. In the end, I would like to hang out with Roman and eat protein bars and drink some beer, while I would probably want to bitchslap Omega in real life.) (Keri: To your point Kent, at the end of the day it’s to each his or her own which is the way it should be. There is too much wrestling out there right now to say that one kind (or person) is better than the other. Everyone should just like what (or who) they like and be done with it. Wrestling fandom would be a lot more peaceful that way. If you like WWE then that’s your thing. If you like NJPW and ROH but not WWE, then that is your thing. We are just getting too judgy, myself included. You’re right Kent we all look foolish.)

Kent: They just did this exact story last year with Roman with the US Championship, and it was historic. Historically awful and boring and killed the belt’s credibility. He is above the belt and will not raise it up with him. With Brock not wrestling consistently, at least Roman can be the top dog again until he’s the top dog again. Fuck my life. I am so sick of Roman holding a belt and being unstoppable. Just book him sarter and I will shut the fuck up about it. He can eat some losses in high profile matches. It’s okay. The kids will be just fine and the women’s panties will still be moister than Roman’s hair. He should put over Joe in a high profile feud.

Pick one other aspect of the show that wasn’t covered in this blog and talk about it, and don’t piggy back. You got Braun, Elias, 205, Sheasaro/Shield, HHH, Kurt, Kane, the women’s 4 way, the horrible refereeing lately, etc.

Russ: I thought Sheamus vs Dean was a very good match. These two have some great Chemistry. I know we’ve seen them battle a lot over the past 2 months, but I still haven’t gotten sick of it. I do kind of want Dean and Seth to move on from the belts, but something tells me they may get them back sooner than later. I hope not. Sheasaro should hold the belts for a decent amount of time. They deserve that at least.

Keri: That opening segment was great. Well, let me clarify that part with the confrontation between Triple H and Braun was great. I’ve never seen the look of oh shit look on Triple H’s face before and it was hilarious. Even Stephanie was like screw it I’m out of here when Braun came out. It was really well done and saved the segment.

Kent: Refs, you CANNOT pick and choose your fucking count outs. Either when one person enters, you restart your count, or you keep the count until you reach 10 or both participants are in the ring. STop this fucking nonsense! Seriously, just watch this past week of wrestling and there is no consistency across the board aside from the lack of consistency is consistent. Furthermore, tag teams have to the count of 5 for the member who tagged out to get out of the ring. Start fucking DQ’ing teams, or at the very least, send them to the back and let it go on as a handicap match. The strategy would be kinda interesting then. Do you stay in and destroy your opponent and lose a member of the team? It’s like an Iron Man match, do you use a weapon to weaken your opponent and accept the DQ in hopes of gaining a huge advantage? Something has to give because these refs are fucking terrible.

Sooooo, what was the point of the SamiKO saga this week? They won their match. Also, why in the world should they be fired?

Russ: I always hate firing angles. They are the worst, especially when it comes to top talent. If they were to get fired from Smackdown, RAW would pick them up so quickly that they wouldn’t have had time to get out of the Smackdown locker room. So firing angles are stupid. Also, SamiKO’s interference at Survivor Series was minimal at best. They came out. Looked menacing for 5 seconds. Got their asses handed to them. Retreated to the back. The end. Yea, that isn’t firing worthy. It was embarrassing, but not firing worthy. As for the SamiKO saga this week. I think this was make-up for the confusion that happened during the Europe Tour. I hope this punishment doesn’t last long because SamiKO needs to be a dominant force on Smackdown and not a laughing stock. Randy vs KO next week should be pretty decent. I expect Randy to win it or interference to happen and maybe we will have a Randy and KO feud on our hands.

Keri: I’m confused on both accounts and that confusion has nothing to do with Sami or KO. It has to do with Daniel Bryan. From the start, he’s been against the invasion and Shane’s actions up to this point. He got locked in closet with Kane because of Shane. If that doesn’t justify a heel turn, I don’t know what does. With that said though, they are teasing it by Bryan not firing them but still I fully expected more than what I got. Also, I hope this is the end of New Day vs SamiKO. It’s officially boring.

Kent: Shane wanting to fire SamiKO is another sign of how bad of a chracter he has become. Yeah fire them after losing at Survivor Series, when you knew damn well that they would retaliate because you were a dick to them. Perfect logic. I hate the last 5 minutes. Sami gets the pin and KO is trying to get Sami out of the ring and to follow him, and Sami kinda acts like a moron. I felt that Daniel should have come out to make his announcement rather than do it backstage. It had significantly less impact. I’m fine with Randy vs KO, they’re dicks to each other on Twitter, so that’s fun, but this whole thing felt super weak. Rusev Day in the locker room was great.

The Bludgeon Brothers debuted. Thoughts?

Russ: I really want to be positive. I’m indifferent to Rowan, but I really like Luke and want him to succeed. With that said. They have a major uphill battle in front of them. Where do I start. Well the crowd had no reaction for these guys, strike one. The outfits…Strike two. A squash match that doesn’t showcase their talents, strike three. Yeah, they are already out. WWE will fuck this up and it is apparent that they have already begun the fuck up. How will WWE repackage these two next? Find out in 6 months. I mean 1 more month of this trainwreck and 5 months until they are reintroduce them.

Keri: Finally after weeks of vignettes we get the debut of the Bludgeon Brothers. And you know what? I think it fell flat. I was really anticipating something great and it seems what actually happened was really a let down. Yeah they look dominate but something is just missing for me.

Kent: Deep breathe. Nope, I gotta take another one. First of all, shame on WWE for not rebuilding the Hype Bros back up after Zack’s return and having them as total jobbers while Zack is in great shape, physically. OK, on to the BB’s. Fuck their attire is terrible. Like, just make the charcoal color more of a dark green and rip off Freddy Krueger. That would have been preferred. The match was meh. I am not optimistic in the least bit.

Oh great, 3 women show up on RAW so 3 other women show up on Smackdown. Yes, now have Ruby Riot, Liv Morgan, and Sarah Logan. Thoughts?

Russ: At first, I thought wow this seems oddly familiar. Then I remember about 3 hours earlier I just saw Paige and two other NXT people get the call up for RAW and did the exact same thing! This was not original for even 24 hours. Still Ruby Riot is an interesting call up. I like her. She is ok in the ring, but she has personality and charisma. I hope this translates to something good for her. Still having her mimic Paige in less than 24 hours is not a good start. Oh the other two girls. I don’t know who the fuck they are so I’ll wait to see what they do before I say anything.

Keri: I expected call ups on Smackdown but these were not the ones that I expected. With that said, Ruby Riot is unique and brings something different to the Smackdown women’s roster. I haven’t seen to much of her but what I have seen I enjoyed so there is that. As for Liv, don’t know that much about her and haven’t seen that much of her in ring so I’m interested to see why they felt she was ready for a call up. As for Sarah Logan, otherwise known as Crazy Mary Dobson to those who follow the Indies, she’s a good performer and was one of my picks to win the Mae Young Classic earlier this year. Watch her matches from the MYC and I think you will be impressed. Or at least I hope you will be. What I am curious about is where they are going with this NXT women’s invasion. What is the endgame for the stables that they called up?Honestly this is the most creative Creative has been in like forever so of course I have lots of questions.

Kent: I don’t even really know who Sarah Logan is but she strikes me as unremarkable. I have seen every episode of NXT this year, and I am sure I’ve seen her a few times, but I simply didn’t pay attention, so that’s cool. I stand by assertions that I made over a year ago that Liv could be a star down the road. Unfortunately, she didn’t get much of a push in NXT and didn’t seem to improve much over the past year while constantly being leap frogged by newcomers. She is finally a heel which should help. It’s kind of a make or break time for her. She needs to improve like Alexa and Carmella did or else she will drown on the main roster. I think that she can do this. Then there’s Lita….I mean Ruby Riot. This girl is not very great in ring. She has a unique look and charisma and can’t tell a story in the ring to save her life. I didn’t think she was ever that good in ring, and has never carried a single match. I find her incredibly overrated and she should not have been called up in my opinion. Why Peyton Royce didn’t get called up while all of these lesser get the call up is beyond me. On the other hand, the Smackdown Women’s division needed new blood, so that does help, and keep your eyes on Liv.

How do you feel about a possible Baron Corbin vs Bobby Roode feud?

Russ: Well sure why not. I’m not sure how they will mesh in the ring, but I have faith that both guys can get something out of this. Baron needs a great rival and maybe Bobby can fill that need. Bobby is in desperate need of a great feud too, because so far he hasn’t been too glorious on the main roster.

Keri: Not sure about this at all. I guess I’ll have to wait and see how it plays out to formulate an official opinion. I still don’t know why they want Bobby to be a face though. Oh well.

Kent: I know that you would expect me to be super excited since I really like both guys. I fear that this combination may be lackluster. Baron needs guys to bump and sell and Bobby can and will to an extent. I think the promos could be really fun. Still, I do worry about in ring chemistry. I hope that I am wrong. It’s time for Baron to really shine in a feud with a top guy. I hope that he can handle it and I hope Bobby losing will turn him heel.

Bonus Deuce

Rate RAW

Russ: This was a decent night. It wasn’t fantastic, but several of the segments were really good. Miz TV, the opening segment, the IC Title match, Paige’s return, and the Dean Sheamus match were all good. I think those things over shadowed the garbage. Rating: 5.9

Keri: It must be the return of Paige that has lifted my power of positivity because I thought this show was not bad. I’m not even going to rant about Roman winning yet another title that he may or may not deserved. I even enjoyed what was basically a Stephanie-Triple H opening segment. Rating: 5

Kent: Paige returned and there were some semblances of decent matches. I don’t think it was bad, so I will go with a 5.5.

Rate Smackdown

Russ: This week was very run of the mill. SamiKO were prominent even in an utter beatdown and I am intrigued by what they are doing with Daniel. Ruby may have been introduced in the basic same way Paige was, but I’m interested to see what they will do with her. The rest of the show was unremarkable. Rating: 4.4

Keri: Outside of the NXT women’s invasion, this was a generic episode of Smackdown for me. Pretty much the same old stuff. It just didn’t have the excitement of RAW in my opinion. Rating: 4

Kent: This one felt flat to me compared to RAW. Honestly, it was all just a build up for the main event, the debut of the Bludgeon Bros, and the women’s angle. That’s 3 things, so they get a 3.3. I wasn’t a huge fan of this week.

Final Thoughts

Russ: Hope everyone had or is having a great Thanksgiving. Steam sale this weekend so I expect to waste about $50 bucks on games I won’t play for several years. Oh, wrestling final thoughts… yea, I got nothing.

Keri: Welcome back Paige! I’ve missed you. As for this female invasion angle, what should their name be? Can’t call them the SHEild because that’s a stable of 3. The Bullet Club doesn’t fit either. Maybe some variation of the NWO? See this is why I’m asking for suggestions. I have nothing.

Kent: I find it perplexing that WWE brings up people from NXT and then have them in the opposite role, as in face or heel. Bobby is a consumate heel, so they bring him up as a face. Liv Morgan and Ruby Riot have been faces this whole time, so now they’re heels. This really baffled the mind.

Russ and Kent watched Survivor Series, or most of it and we are here to discuss the show in graphic detail. Still no Paige. I also found myself missing Ellsworth.

Pre Game Deuce (Or the matches that weren’t advertised)

Elias defeated Matt Hardy

Russ: Didn’t know this was a match, didn’t care. I’ll take Kent’s word for this and not bother watching it. Rating N/A

Kent: Fat Hardy is fat. He has let himself go, yet again. I am not one that can criticize, but I can point it out. This wasn’t even a fun match and I love watching Elias. This was a dud. Aiden or Rusev instead of Hardy would have been much better.

Rating: 2.5 with all those points dedicated to Elias trying to carry this match the best that he could.

SamiKO defeated Breezedango

Russ: Glad they gave Breezedango a match, but Kent is right! This should have been against a RAW team. I can’t believe SamiKO was relegated to an impromptu match on the Kickoff Show. I hope they get treated better over the next 5 months. Rating: 4. It was an adequate match, but with no story or reason for the match it did very little.

Kent: Why didn’t they go Gallows and Anderson vs SamiKO is beyond me. This match was given some time, but it wasn’t all that good. Probably the best of the kickoff show, but that doesn’t require much. SamiKO along with Breezedango deserve better booking.

Rating: 3.3

The 9

. 205 Championship Match – Enzo defeated Kalisto

Russ: Oh man, this was hot garbage. Kalisto doesn’t do it for me. He had one good match against Baron. The only reason that was good, I think, was because Baron could ragdoll him a bit. Well Enzo can’t do that because they are the same size. Also, with all the interbrand will they, won’t they put us #undersiege shit going on this month this match got lost in the shuffle. Please, PLEASE, have Enzo move on from Kalisto. Rating: 2.2

Kent: I tried to try to pay attention, but i just couldn’t. I honestly wasn’t into this match at all. I don’t enjoy Kalisto as a singles guy. Bring back Lucha Dragons, PLEASE. Enzo needs a better opponent with some technical skills.

Rating: 2.7

The Shield defeated New Day

Russ: Alright let’s get this out of the way. The end result was obvious. If you thought The New Day had a chance of winning this then you don’t know WWE. Overall this was a fun match. The New Day played the role of Heel, but never really utilized a lot of heel tactics. It was typical tag match in the beginning. The second half of the match really picked up the pace and a lot of fun sequences occurred. I love how the rules go out the door when the WWE needs them to. At least commentary did their best to try and cover this up. Loved some of the innovative finishers they did at the end. Overall I was satisfied with this opener. Rating: 5.8 On a side note I like how they are keeping score of the wins for the night.

Kent: The refereeing sucked so much in this match, and this would be a common theme throughout the night, unfortunately. The ref allowed both team, but especially the Shield too much time with 2 or 3 guys in the ring at the same time. Grow a pair ref and make them abide you! When the fuck did Seth get so lazy or bland in the ring? He was just good as a tag team with Dean, but if you notice, Dean has been the workhorse, but Seth used to be. It’s odd and I don’t like it. Seth is a great workhorse, but I don’t know if he ever fully came back from injury. It’s weird and sad. It’s sad to see how Dean’s arms have no definition and the shirt exemplifies that big time. This was a good match, and it was fun. It kept me engaged all match, but not always for positive things. Still, I can say that this may be rewatchable.

Rating: 5.1 Just to be safe as I could be coerced into rewatching, or I may never watch it again. Everybody tried at least.

Russ: Ok, Let me get this out of the way again. The end result was obvious. I wrote this before the match even started so let’s see how right I am with how this will end. I’m saying Asuka and Foxy team Raw. Well I was wrong about Foxy, though I wonder if her pin was a mistake. The way they eliminated Becky was horrible. She deserves a lot better. The battle of the Hosses was underwhelming. Tamina needs to learn how to wrestle. I guess the count out was one of the only ways to get Nia out without making her look weak. This match was mediocre at best. At least it wasn’t unwatchable. Rating: 4.1

Kent: Poor Becky Lynch and Bayley to a lesser extent. This match was insulting to both of them. I also was not fond of Natty’s ring gear, but am loving Carmella’s. Alicia looked great tonight, but I think the ref fucked up. That was not a 3 count and believe me when I was I immediately text Keri, Eric, and Twan about how it wasn’t a 3. Poor reffing again. Nia tried, but this wasn’t a very good outing for her, while Tamina shined some. Naomi was an afterthought as was Sasha to a certain degree. This was all about showcasing Asuka and having the Hoss Showdown. The effort was there, but wasn’t a good match. I was paying close attention, so my rating may be higher than it deserves.

Rating: 4.3 Because it kept me engaged.

Baron Corbin defeated The Miz

Russ: This was a well told story in the ring, but it definitely wasn’t the match of the night. Both guys deserve a lot of credit. The lead up to this match was mostly done on Twitter. I don’t pay attention to Twitter so I missed a lot of this feuds build. Still these two have a decent chemistry in the ring. The only real negative I have about this match was the fact that The Miz worked on Baron’s leg and Baron sold it. For about 1 minute. It really should have played more into the match. Ending sequence was fast and fun. Rating: 5.4

Kent: Yup, I fucking nailed it. This was definitely the match of the night and both guys looked like stars doing it. Both guys played to their strengths. I am so proud of how far Baron has come, and he sold this match so much better than the supposedly superior Finn Balor. The Miz deserves another run as the World champ next year in my opinion. Everything about this worked, including Baron to tell a fan to shut up and sit down. This was a fine example of 2 guys figuring their shit out and putting together a well executed match with good psychology and a logical progression.

Rating: 6.8 I really enjoyed this one as you can tell.

The Uso’s defeated Sheasaro

Russ: This was a really good match. I didn’t expect anything less. These two teams continue to prove why they are the two best tag teams in the WWE. The back and forth in this was great. The spots were well executed. Loved the last tag between Jimmy and Jay. It was a thing of beauty. The right team won this I think. Sheasaro didn’t need to win they just had to look good. This match definitely delivered that. Rating: 6.3

Kent: This was the second best match of the night, and I nailed that too. No, my arm doesn’t get sore patting myself on the back. They did what they were supposed to but I can’t say that it was better done than Miz and Baron. It was close. Some stuff looked a little sloppy and Cesaro looked like he hurt his head. I felt that he and possibly Sheamus were hampered by pain at various points in the match which hurt the pace a bit. It was still very good, but it could have been at least a point better, without a doubt.

Rating: 6.6 I liked it, but I could have loved it and so I can’t rate it higher.

Female Flair defeated Alexa Bliss

Russ: I’m sure this match was adequate. I wouldn’t know because while I had it on I was most definitely playing video games. So I would look up every once in awhile. What I saw was standard stuff. There were a few moments of entertainment, this wasn’t a total trainwreck. I mean Little Miss Bliss is always great, but the way she was treated for the past month as an afterthought made this pretty easy to predict. I can’t wait to see what Kent has to say! You know he loves Charlotte. Rating: 3.8

Kent: This was on my laptop while The Walking Dead was on. I made the right decision. I can’t stand a Charlotte match and she won. Fuck this.

Rating: N/A

Brock Lesnar defeated AJ Styles

Russ: Wow, this match is already on at 9:30! The 5 man Survivor Series Match must be close to an hour because I don’t think Lesnar can go for more than 15 minutes. AJ is a good ragdoll for Brock. AJ sold Brocks offense like a champ! On a down note I couldn’t tell if this match was sloppy or just too many high impact moves and a few of them were just off. Still this was fun! They set up the Calf Crusher beautifully by attacking Brock’s knee often. Brock getting out of the Calf Crusher was also a thing of beauty. I hate that Brock has turned into a one-note wrestler, but that’s the way he wants to go out. The match went 17 minutes so I was close to being right about the 15. Jinder Mahal is in rarified air. I think he is the only human being who can’t put a good match together with AJ. This was fast paced and fun. Rating: 6.2 I think this would have been match of the night, but it was a bit sloppy at points.

Kent: This match was way better than I expected, and I accept that I was sorely mistaken on this. I am fearing for Brock Lesnar’s well being. He is red and purple so early in the match. He was not in great shape, yet again. You can not be ripped and have great cardio like Joe and KO. Brock was carried. Brock did his role, but AJ carried it. There were some sloppy moments, and I believe that Brock legit hurt his leg, probably his knee. He swore a few times and his knee looked swollen and he was visibly in some discomfort. AJ is still the best in the world, and I think that will be the case for another 2 years at the very least.

Rating: 5.9 It was fun and kept my attention. It told an okay story, but Brock needs to do something about his long term health.

Russ: This seemed like a slam dunk win for Smackdown, but that was before they actually kept track for us all night. Makes me think RAW might actually pull this off. I guess we will see. The entrances alone took 20 minutes, because everyone had to get their own entrance. I am shocked! Shocked! Well not that shocked that Shinsuke, Bobby, and Joe, were the first to be eliminated, but this isn’t a match about showcasing the young up and comers. No, this is a match to showcase those who really need it, you know those part-timers and old guys. Cena getting eliminated was an actual shock. SamiKO’s interference was very welcome for 5 seconds until they were taken out like bitches *sigh*. Kent called Shane being the last man standing for team Smackdown and that was a complete ego stroking. HHH attacking Angle was odd, but we saw it coming to set up their feud for Mania. Braun at the end was fantastic. They made him look like a million bucks and he went over huge with the fans. Overall, this was decent. It wasn’t anything special, but it did help elevate Braun a bit. Too bad it won’t translate to belt wins or anything because gotta have Brock look strong for his feeding to Roman. YEA! Rating: 6

Kent: Yup, wrong again. I definitely had a fun first 5 or so minutes. Some of the spots worked. I have to admit, the part timers ruined this for me. You have 4 part timers and Randy and it felt like WCW in the mid to late 90’s with all of their old asses. Not much clicked for me as it progressed. Shane needs to be done. I am done with Shane, and I hate to admit it, but Kurt is starting to be iffy for me. HHH is all psychology and body sculpting. I don’t even know why Cena was there. Smackdown had all the teamwork, yet were made to look like total bitches. This match is what’s wrong with WWE. Yes, it’s great that Braun walked out as the #1 guy, but when it counts, he’s not going to get the Brock rub at Mania, so who gives a shit? I wanted to love this, and I didn’t really enjoy it. Yes, it totally kept my attention and kept me guessing, but this match did more harm than good in the grand scheme of things.

Rating: 5.8

What was the most logical booking of the night and most illogical?

Russ: I think the most logical booking was having Baron go over The Miz. Baron needed a rub and The Miz delivered it to him in spades. I also want to say the way they treated Braun was smart. I just know it won’t lead to anything great for him. The most illogical had to be the traditional 5 on 5’s. For the women I just don’t like how they treated Becky in the match. As for the guys, I think it is obvious but allow me to explain. I don’t understand why they had to showcase the old guys and the part-timers. They could have had all the same stuff happen except have it happen in the beginning of the match and then let Joe, Finn, Shinsuke, Bobby, Braun show us what they can do in the end. I don’t even know why Cena was apart of this. Yes I know his name alone is a draw, but he added nothing to this match.

Kent: Logical was Baron, Uso’s, and Asuka all winning. Illogical, the referee just allowing anything and everything to happen. More importantly, the women’s 5 on 5 really bothered me with how Becky and Bayley were treated.

Bonus Deuce Deuce

Match of the night:

Russ: Going to have to give it the tag match. I had the most fun just watching that one so I’ll give it to that.

Kent: Baron vs Miz, no doubt.

Worst Match of the night

Russ: Women’s Champions match. It was ok, but overall, the wrong person won and it was the match I paid the least amount of attention to.